Kyle Shanahan vs. Andy Reid will be chess match of coaching geniuses

Super Bowl 54 features a pair of head coaches that have proven time again how good they are at their jobs. Andy Reid is a Hall of Fame caliber coach and finally getting a Super Bowl victory would assuredly put him over the top. Kyle Shanahan is in the early stages of his head coaching career, but the turnaround he and John Lynch have engineered in San Francisco has him on track for a heck of a head coach career.

We could go through an assortment of video to show the many things Reid and Shanahan do well, but one from last week’s NFC Championship Game is particularly interesting. Working the referees can be an important part of a coach’s job. Even if a coach exaggerates, getting in an official’s head can make it easier to draw critical penalties.

In this video, we see the play where George Kittle drew a defensive pass interference call on Packers defensive back Will Redmond. The video opens with Shanahan telling side judge Eugene Hall that Kittle will attempt to go inside and then break out but that Redmond won’t let him go. It happened and while there’s an argument to be made for Kittle getting physical first, Shanahan’s pitch to Hall might have bumped things in the 49ers favor.

Good coaches know how to work the refs and it’s safe to say we’ll see plenty of that in Super Bowl 54.