Kyle Shanahan Praises Bill Belichick For Post-Super Bowl LI Act

Kyle Shanahan's last trip to the Super Bowl was nearly a career highlight, and turned into a nightmare. As offensive coordinator of the NFC Champion Atlanta Falcons, he took his foot off of the pedal up 28-3 against Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots.

Tom Brady and the Pats wound up scoring 31 unanswered points, winning the game in overtime, 34-28. The blown lead put a bit of a damper on the San Francisco 49ers' hire of Shanahan, which became official the next day.

Belichick is not generally known as a super warm figure, but he had a pretty classy gesture after that Super Bowl win. During yesterday's Super Bowl Media Day, Shanahan said that Belichick reached out to talk to him about the game, and the two spent time together at the 2017 NFL Scouting Combine as well.

From NBC Sports Bay Area:

“'It was really cool that he reached out to me after the Super Bowl just to talk,' Shanahan said Monday at Marlins Park during Super Bowl Opening Night. 'I was able to spend some time with him at the [2017] NFL combine, which I was very appreciative of. Any time that guy talks, everyone in the world listens. That was especially true for someone like me who aspired to be a head coach. He has been great. It’s not like we talk a ton or anything, but he’s a humble guy who likes to help people.'"

Belichick's team may not be playing, but he played a hand in the construction of this 49ers roster, of course. It is pretty well established that he made sure that former Patriots backup quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo, who was once considered Tom Brady's heir apparent, found a good landing spot once it was decided that the team would trade him.

While he might've been able to get a bigger return for the young signal caller, Belichick dealt him to San Francisco, where he thought Garoppolo would thrive under Shanahan, the team's new head coach.

"Though he has never addressed it directly, it’s generally understood within the Boston media that Belichick didn’t shop Garoppolo to establish leverage in the trade market, choosing instead to give his young backup quarterback a good home. He found one with the 49ers -- the Patriots only received a second-round pick in return -- believing Garoppolo could grow and thrive working with Shanahan.

“'Having someone like Bill say something like that, for me and what I do in life, if pretty cool,' Shanahan said. 'That’s a big a compliment as I could personally have. It feels great. Hopefully that’s true because I’m very glad he felt that way, and I feel very fortunate that we were able to get Jimmy.'”

The Niners have been built from the ground up by Kyle Shanahan, who has constructed one of the best rushing offenses we've seen in years, in a pass-happy NFL. He deserves massive credit for the team's accomplishments this year, but it may not have been this quick a turnaround if not for the respect of Belichick, and the burgeoning relationship the two started to build after that Super Bowl a few years ago.

[NBC Sports Bay Area]