Early last week, Kyle Shanahan had his video director, Michael Bracken, pull coaches tape of the 1994 NFC title game between the 49ers and Cowboys. Shanahan was 15 for that one, a freshman in high school, and his dad was the Niners’ offensive coordinator. He figured he’d have time, at some point, to check it out before his own team played Dallas on Sunday. That time came on Thursday night, after he’d had trouble getting to sleep.
He got out of bed, went to his home office, and there were Troy Aikman and Steve Young on the screen, like he was a teenager again.
“I just wanted to watch that game for fun,” he said, early Sunday night from Dallas. “And I was just watching it, and it was just so cool because I haven’t watched that old of tape like that. And watching Michael Irvin and Deion [Sanders] just going at it one on one, watching all the players, there were so many. I was kinda having my own nostalgic moment just watching it.
