“(Brock Purdy) is so confident in who he is as a person. He’s one of the most confident, humble people I’ve ever been around.” – Shanahan on QB Brock Purdy being unaffected by media attention
“It hurts. It doesn’t kill you. You understand what happened. You understand you can handle it. You can take it. ‘Haunted’ is just such the wrong word. It makes you stronger, really.” – Shanahan on his first Super Bowl appearance losing a 28-3 lead as the Falcons offensive coordinator
“Putting (Patrick) Mahomes on after six starting seasons is easy. There are few quarterbacks, ever, except maybe Otto Graham, (Tom) Brady and (Joe) Montana, who’d be strong candidates for the Hall of Fame after their first six professional years starting.”– King on placing Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes on his all-time team only six years into his career
“Every game he’s like a Barry Sanders highlight reel.” – Shanahan on Mahomes
STAMFORD, Conn. – Feb. 5, 2024 – Peter King reports on his ride to work last week with San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan as he prepared the 49ers for Super Bowl LVIII against the Chiefs in this week’s edition of Football Morning in America, available now exclusively on NBCSports.com. King also discusses 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy’s rise from being pick No. 262 in the 2022 NFL Draft, his all-time NFL roster, and more.
NBC Sports provides comprehensive coverage this week leading up to Super Bowl LVIII across Peacock and NBC Sports digital platforms, featuring live shows and an array of 80+ interviews from Las Vegas. Daily live on-site coverage from Radio Row at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center this week on Peacock includes Fantasy Football Happy Hour with Matthew Berry (Noon-1 p.m. ET), PFT Live (1-3 p.m. ET) and Brother from Another (3-4 p.m. ET). In addition, The Dan Patrick Show begins each day on Peacock from 9 a.m.-Noon ET and will broadcast live from the Fontainebleau in Las Vegas. For NBC Sports’ Super Bowl week coverage, click here. To learn more about the NBC Sports on Peacock channel and how to sign up, click here.
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The following are highlights from this week’s edition of Football Morning in America:
49ERS
49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan on his first Super Bowl appearance, losing a 28-3 lead as the Falcons offensive coordinator in Super Bowl LI: “It hurts. It doesn’t kill you. You understand what happened. You understand you can handle it. You can take it. ‘Haunted’ is just such the wrong word. It makes you stronger, really.”
Shanahan on the heartbreak of losing being worth it: “You get to go through something you love, something that’s more important in life than almost anything. That’s what I learned about football growing up, but it only gets stronger as I get older.”
Shanahan on 49ers QB Brock Purdy being unaffected by the media attention: “(Purdy) is so confident in who he is as a person. He’s one of the most confident, humble people I’ve ever been around. Borderline cocky, which is such the wrong word because he’s so humble and such a good dude.”
King on Purdy’s tools as a quarterback coming into the Super Bowl: “The other thing you notice about Purdy, something that could be vital next Sunday, is his ability to stay with a play till the last split-second, even with heat in his face.”
Shanahan to Purdy on the possibility of signing Tom Brady: “Don’t worry. You’re our guy. But how cool would it be if Tom Brady would be the quarterback here for one season? How cool would it be for you to learn from him?”
King on Purdy being compared to all-time great 49ers quarterbacks: “The numbers don’t mean you should intentionally deflate Purdy because you think there’s no way he belongs in the same league with (Joe) Montana and (Steve) Young. Purdy is existing in his era, in his time, with a coach who produces terrific plans, with an excellent supporting cast, and he’s doing what’s asked of him, and doing it superbly. In the end, that’s what counts, in any era.”
Shanahan on Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes: “With Patrick, it’s about the way he creates the time he buys, the way he throws so fluidly, so confidently, from all platforms. Every game he’s like a Barry Sanders highlight reel.”
Shanahan on Chiefs TE Travis Kelce: “To me he’s got the best hands in football. [His chemistry with Mahomes] is so great.”
KING’S ALL-TIME ROSTER
King: “Early this season, a reader asked if I would name my all-time team, seeing as I was in my 40th season covering the NFL…Instead of a first and second team, I’ll name a full team of 53 players. The last few will not be the best players, necessarily. But one of the things I’ve grown to like about the sport is how much of a team game it is. So, on my team, I’m not going to have all the locks, all the obvious guys.”
King on placing Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes on his all-time list only six years into his career: “Putting (Patrick) Mahomes on after six starting seasons is easy. There are few quarterbacks, ever, except maybe Otto Graham, (Tom) Brady and (Joe) Montana, who’d be strong candidates for the Hall of Fame after their first six professional years starting.”
King on Eagles center Jason Kelce being the only center on the list: “(Jason) Kelce was the most versatile center I’ve seen. He could mash and he could get out on the sweep and he could corkscrew the Tush Push. If there was an all-interview team for my 40 years, he’d make that too.”
King on former Pittsburgh wide receiver Hines Ward: “(Hines) Ward’s here because he’s the best blocking wide receiver I’ve seen, and he caught 1,000 passes. Loved his unselfishness. Teams with diva wide receivers who don’t block might have hated Ward (I can tell you—they did), but he knew his job, and his job was to be the most physical blocking receiver on the team, and to catch passes.”
King on former New England linebacker Tedy Bruschi: “(Tedy) Bruschi, who played inside and outside as a Patriot, you might be surprised, but I loved him as a heart-and-soul, totally unselfish player for the greatest team of the last 40 years. He ran down on special teams late into his career, five times exceeded 100 tackles, had a stroke in early 2005 and missed only four games due to injury after the near-miracle of his return.”
King on naming safeties Ed Reed and Troy Polamalu to his list: “(Ed) Reed and (Troy) Polamalu are the most instinctive safeties I’ve ever seen. Polamalu, obviously, is the more physical one; he lived to jump over the center at the precise right moment to ruin the play for the offense, and his timing was impeccable. There is one player in the top 30 all-time in interceptions who played exclusively in this century: Reed.”
King on naming former Cowboys wide receiver Michael Irvin to a bench spot on his all-time list: “First, (Michael Irvin) will be ticked off he’s not one of the top four receivers on the squad. I mean, ticked off. But I want someone who will despise losing, who will lead in the locker room and on the field, and who will play great when it matters.”
Read the full FMIA column here and catch the weekly Peter King Podcast here.
The following are additional highlights of NBC Sports’ NFL coverage leading up to Super Bowl LVIII:
- From Monday-Friday, daily live on-site coverage from Radio Row at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center on Peacock includes Fantasy Football Happy Hour with Matthew Berry (Noon-1 p.m. ET), PFT Live (1-3 p.m. ET) and Brother from Another (3-4 p.m. ET). In addition, The Dan Patrick Show begins each day on Peacock from 9 a.m.-Noon ET and will broadcast live from the Fontainebleau in Las Vegas.ProFootballTalk.com continues to provide the latest news and updates.
- Chris Simms and Ahmed Fareed will host the Simms Unbuttoned podcast from Las Vegas next week, and NBC Sports’ podcasts Bet the EDGE and Rotoworld Football Show will be live from Las Vegas. King will provide exclusive digital content and interviews throughout the week from Las Vegas for “The Peter King Podcast.”
- Additional NFL content and interviews throughout Super Bowl week will post across NBC Sports’ digital platforms, including the NFL on NBC YouTube channel, which offers daily football content for free.
A new “Football Morning in America” posts every Monday morning exclusively on NBCSports.com through the NFL season. It was announced in May 2019 that King signed an exclusive agreement with NBC Sports Group that included writing a weekly Monday morning NFL column for NBCSports.com; making regular appearances on PFT Live with Mike Florio; and continuing to contribute to Football Night in America, the most-watched studio show in sports.
--NBC SPORTS--