In our exclusive interview, the three-time Super Bowl champion discusses the season ahead for his sons Christian and Luke, Bo Nix’s prospects in Denver and the state of college football.
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Your son Christian made it to the Super Bowl with the 49ers last year. Do you think they can go one step further and win it all this season?
That’s the goal every year, to win the Super Bowl. They came so close last year, I really feel they should have won it, but they didn’t. The only thing you can do in those circumstances is turn the page and start working towards doing it again this season.
Now, they have a couple of pretty good players that aren’t on the field yet. General manager John Lynch, a former teammate of mine, is trying to sign Trent Williams over there at left tackle. And then Drake Greenlaw was injured in the Super Bowl. That was a pretty traumatic injury that really affected that game. He’s still recovering from his surgery that he had during the offseason. Important players like that hopefully will heal up and get back, and then I think they can they can make another run at it.
There’s no guarantees in life or in the NFL, there’s only opportunities. So they’re going to have to go to battle with the guys they have currently on the roster, and hopefully those important players will get back soon.
Where do you think the 49ers fell short last year? Was the Kansas City Chiefs’ extra experience the difference?
It is so difficult just to get to a Super Bowl, and it’s even more difficult to win one. A lot of great players, Hall of Famers, never even got to play in one. You have to have the right owner who hires the right head coach and general manager, they have to get the right players on the team, and those players have to play well throughout the season then their best football in the playoffs and the Super Bowl.
I’ll never take credit away from the Kansas City Chiefs, Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelsey, their defence, Andy Reid, the whole organisation – they were the better team that day.
If one thing made the difference, you could point to it and fix it, but unfortunately for the 49ers, it wasn’t one thing. They didn’t play their best football against a very good football team, they left them in it, and Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs won the game.
If you were putting all your chips on the table this year, would you pick the 49ers to win it?
I have got three kids that are still involved with the NFL. My oldest son, Max, coaches for the Dolphins, my youngest son Luke was just drafted by the Washington Commanders and then obviously Christian plays for the 49ers. I’ll be rooting for all of them.
I don’t ever push all my chips in on anything. I like throwing a circle on a piece of paper and then looking through all 32 teams and trying to figure out which five or six teams have a real good shot getting to the playoffs and maybe win in the Super Bowl. The 49ers are one of those teams.
It’s the same teams that were in the playoffs the year before, and one or two newcomers. In the NFC, Detroit has a good team, Green Bay is putting a good team together, and Dallas has a good team. They will still be in contention. I think the Rams will be a better team than they were a year before, and I’m rooting for Dan Quinn and the Commanders, with Luke in Washington, to turn things around.
There’s just a lot of competition in the NFC. Chicago’s a better team. Atlanta’s a better team, and usually there’s one new team that sneaks in there.
Christian has put numerous incredible seasons together in Carolina and now San Francisco. Do you think he’s already approaching a Hall of Fame career?
We don’t think that way. Right now he’s still in the thick of it. Up until now, I love the fact that he’s done a lot of things that have never been done in the NFL, set a lot of records that he broke from really great players, but he wants to keep doing that.
When he’s retired, like all those other guys, we’ll have that discussion.
Do you think he has a shot at winning the MVP this year?
We don’t think about individual honours, but I hope so. I thought he had a chance to win it last year. He had a phenomenal season.
That’s a good problem to have, right? Hoping that you’re the MVP. That means you’ve done some pretty good things so we’re certainly hoping he’s in that category again.
What are your hopes for Luke in his first NFL season?
The thing I love about Luke is his attitude. He was a quarterback up until a year and a half ago, switched to wide receiver and is just really taken to the position.
He has a passion for the game, a love for the game and just the greatest attitude. He’s constantly asking questions and trying to learn, and I’m sure he’s doing that from some of their veteran receivers like Terry McLaurin. He’s a very talented athlete and he’s really improved in his route running.
If you’ve only done something for a year and a half, there’s obviously room to grow and room to improve, but he’s already at a pretty high level. I’m hoping that he continues to work hard and I know he will to be the best version of himself, so when he gets his opportunity to get on the field, he can have some success and help his team.
You were known for your blocking as a receiver. Is that something Luke is willing to do?
Yeah, effort’s not the issue. He’s not afraid to get in there, mix it up and get down and dirty. The teams I played for required you to block. My good teammate Rod Smith and I climbed up through the ranks, and we cut our teeth blocking. We were willing to do some things that maybe other people weren’t willing to do. We honed our skills and became better at it.
When you’re in the run game, the coach is usually subbing you out on passing plays, but then all of a sudden he forgets to sub you out, and you make a catch and he’s like: “Well, that didn’t look so bad. Maybe we can leave those guys in a little bit longer.”
A lot of great coaches understand how important wide receivers are in the run game. You think of them as catching passes, catching touchdowns, but the attitude in the run game starts with the wide receivers because if they’re willing to do it, you get those big explosive runs down the field. It’s something I’ve always preached, Luke understands it and he’s definitely a willing participant.
Has Luke spoken to you about Jayden Daniels and how their connection is progressing?
Jayden is looking great. I’ve met him and got to watch him play in two of their preseason games, saw him practise against the Dolphins and he had one of the best red zone periods I’ve seen a quarterback have against a very good defence in Miami.
He’s polished, he’s probably wise beyond his years, he’s a very accurate passer and he’s athletic. So Luke thinks the world of Jayden, he’s looking forward to catching passes for him and blocking for him when need be. I think they got the right guy in Washington.
Did they ever link up before training camp to throw together?
They did get together and throw a couple of times during the offseason. They get a chance to practise over the summer in OTAs, more than just when they show up at camp, but they did sneak in a couple of workouts.
Your son Max is now coaching in Miami under Mike McDaniel, who was a Broncos intern around the time you were playing in Denver?
He was a ball boy. He actually joined the team kind of after I left, but I knew of him and his family. I remember him when he was a little kid running around there. Kyle Shanahan was also a ball boy when I was with the 49ers back in 1994, and also with the Broncos when I signed in 1995.
These kids grew up around football as ball boys, listening to the coaches, watching the players, just getting a feel for what the life is like and the commitment that is required to be successful in that profession. All these young bucks are growing up and having all kinds of success.
Coach McDaniel has had tonnes of success in Miami, and he’s an innovator. You see him doing things that other teams weren’t doing, and you hear Tua Tagovailoa talk about what a great relationship he has with his head coach, and how when he was down on himself coach McDaniel brought him in, watched film with him and showed him how he could be a great quarterback.
How much of an inspiration is it for someone like Max to have seen Mike McDaniel rise all the way through the ranks to become an NFL head coach?
It starts with having the same type of personality, and the passion for the game. Great coaches can’t do without football. It’s their life and their calling. To put in 18 to 20 hours a day, to bring your laptop home and watch film, especially as you get older and you have family or kids – I don’t think you can just do it for a paycheck. You’re doing it because you love the game.
Max loves the game. I got a chance to coach with him for a couple years and even when I was ready to shut it down, have dinner and stop watching film for half an hour, he just lives with it. He carries it with him, he watches it in the morning and when he’s going to bed at night. Right now, he’s a sponge. They have some great coaches there in Miami and he’s trying to learn from all of them.
Your former team, the Denver Broncos, also have a new quarterback. What are your expectations for their season?
They haven’t played a game yet, but so far so good. Sean Payton looks like he has a renewed energy and optimism. He looks like he got his guy in Bo Nix. My son Luke got to play with Bo Nix in the Senior Bowl and he gave him rave reviews, even before he was drafted by the Broncos. He said he took command of the huddle.
A lot of teams will have pro-style offences with West Coast vernacular, which means a lot of words and long play calls, while some quarterbacks in college have one word plays or shorter scripts. Luke said Bo had no problem whatsoever getting the plays called in the huddle, getting the team up to the line and talking with the play caller of the headset. He did a really good job and he was an incredibly accurate passer.
He did have a lot of experience in college. He wasn’t like a one-year starter and done, so he’s a little more prepared than most rookies. He’s looked phenomenal in the preseason, he earned the starting job, has a great attitude and is a leader. He’s looking really good and I think Sean Payton’s pretty happy.
They’re in a tough division. They have Kansas City, I think the Chargers got better, the Raiders are a tough team, so just within their division they have got their work cut out for them, but the vibe is really good in Denver.
Do you have faith in Sean Payton to get the best out of Bo Nix?
I do. My son Max got to play for Coach Payton for a few weeks in New Orleans, so I’m privy to their offence. I watched all their film and looked at their installs, and he did some things in New Orleans that suited the skill set of Drew Brees. I don’t like comparing rookies to Hall of Famers, but I think Bo’s skill set is one that will fit well in this offence.
Sean Payton played quarterback and has coached this game for a long time, and he wants things done a certain way. He did have a Hall of Famer for a good portion of his coaching career, which makes things easy, but in Bo Nix he sees a quarterback that is very smart, a very accurate passer, can make all the throws, but also is going to see the field like he sees it when he’s out there.
Once the play starts right, the quarterback is driving the bus, not the head coach. It’s up to the quarterback to make good decisions, identifying blitzes, pressures, coverages, understanding your progression and getting rid of the ball quickly. Not taking sacks is something Coach Payton has emphasised, and I think he feels really good and confident about where Bo Nix is right now.
Why do you think Russell Wilson didn’t work out in Denver?
Sometimes it’s just not a great fit. Russell Wilson’s a nine-time Pro Bowler, he’s been to two Super Bowls, won one, and he’s had almost 50,000 passing yards in his career.
He was in a different offence in Seattle, he was on the Broncos for a couple of years and I thought he showed a lot of improvement from his first year to his second.
There were huge expectations he first signed, a new head coach, new play caller, and then all of a sudden your coach is fired. Now you’ve got another new head coach on a team that’s rebuilding and let go of a lot of veteran players and revamped some positions with a lot of young players. There was improvement, but I believe the Denver Broncos felt it was time to find the franchise quarterback for the future.
I do think Russell has a chance to have success in in Pittsburgh. Mike Tomlin’s never had a losing record, they’re typically a nine or 10-win team. They’re looking to turn the corner, but they’re in a very tough division.
Russell earned the job, even though he was in a little bit of a competition with Justin Fields, but they’re going to expect big things from him. Mike Tomlin is not a guy that minces his words, so Russell Wilson is the guy but he’s got to continue to play at a high level, and he knows that.
Over in college football, Stanford has moved to the ACC. How do you think the conference realignment will affect your alma mater?
It’s a little weird, right? For a team that’s on the west coast to be in the Atlantic Coast Conference. I think after the shakeout from last year, you’ve got to be pretty happy you’re in a conference at all. I think there’s still going to continue to be consolidation over the next five, 10, 15 years. There will probably be more conference realignment.
There’s a real good chance, in my opinion, that football breaks away from some of the other sports, because I think of the girls’ volleyball team, the men’s baseball team – teams that have to travel from one side of the country to the other and play multiple games. During your season, you’re barely going to be going to class. It’s way more expensive to travel out of your region, but also it’s got to affect the kids’ education. It’s a short-term fix and I’ll be shocked if that’s the way things are structured 10 years from now.
Are you expecting the move to the ACC to affect Stanford’s performance on the football field?
There’s a lot of optimism at Stanford. I know coach Taylor is really trying to turn the programme around, they’re battling all the things that the other schools are battling, and maybe it’s a little more difficult for Stanford because they have really high academic requirements.
The transfer portal rules changed and basically opened up the floodgates, and it’s not easy to get into Stanford so they weren’t able to bring in as many transfers as other teams. Essentially you’re missing a whole year of your education if you try to get into Stanford. The other problem is if you don’t get into Stanford grad school and you have another year of eligibility – and some players had two more years of eligibility because of the new freshman rule and then COVID giving them an extra season – you can lose your seniors to other schools. As a matter of fact, two of their best players started for Michigan’s national championship team. So they’re losing players that graduate that still have eligibility, and they were losing players that couldn’t get accepted to the school. They’d lose players to the portal, but they couldn’t bring in players to replace them. You have to bring in freshmen who are just not as prepared.
Then NIL opened up, and now it’s pay for play. I know the school’s not doing it directly, but alumni are paying for players to play for certain teams. Now if you have a really talented player, if your NIL doesn’t step up and help compensate players, then you can lose players that way as well.
So Stanford has faced some huge headwinds, a lot of challenges, and they’re facing it just like everyone else. But I would say some of the elite academic institutions have a tougher time keeping up because of their academic standards.
Is college football heading in the right direction, and how many years might it take to stabilise?
If I have to look in the crystal ball, I think for the 30 or 50 big-time FBS football teams, there’s going to have to be consolidation there.
It may be 10 or 15 years away, but they’re going to have to break away from the pack at some point because the TV revenues in college football financially support all of the other programmes at a lot of schools. They’re really dependent on college football to subsidise the losses that they experience with
Football is one game a week, so to have teams that have to play series of three or four games at a time on the road is way more expensive and is affecting student athletes’ education.
College football’s also the only sport where you have to play three years before you can go pro. I was originally part of a group headed by Don Yee, Tom Brady’s agent, and we were going to create a professional football league for players right out of high school. We didn’t quite get the financial support we needed to get it done, but it was a great vision and we had it lined up.
College football will never go away because the alumni love football and it’s a sport that brings the whole university together. But do we need to forget about this three-year rule?
I’m not ruling out the NFL one day having their own farm system like Major League Baseball. They’re not going to want to take that risk, someone else is going to have to do it first, and then if it works the NFL certainly could take it over.
