An episode of the podcast featured three moms and zero NFL news breakers, and yet, the former became the latter serendipitously. This conversation went live in October 2022, as All-Pro running back Christian McCaffrey considered the unthinkable, perhaps leaving Carolina, and, if so, where he might end up.
One mom/host, the journalist Ashley Adamson Coakley, had no vested interest in the destination. The other mom/host, Lisa McCaffrey, cared a great deal. Their guest that day was Peggy Shanahan—wife of longtime NFL coach Mike, and mother to their two children, including Kyle, head coach in San Francisco. She also cared, but on two levels—one, for Christian as a person, owing to deep ties between their families; two, as a 49ers die-hard who wanted to add one of the NFL’s best players, regardless of position. “This is just funny,” Peggy said on the podcast. She had no idea.
All knew San Francisco ranked among the teams most interested in McCaffrey. So Lisa and Peggy joked about Christian landing in San Francisco, with the franchise his dad once played for and more ties between that team and his family than for any team, or any family, in pro football. “It was a harbinger,” Ed McCaffrey, Christian’s father, said in January, as the Niners sped back toward the NFC championship game.
The podcast morphed into exactly that. The day after the episode dropped, Peggy’s son and other decision-makers shipped three selections in the 2023 draft (second, third and fourth rounds) and a fifth-rounder in ’24 to the Panthers for Lisa’s son. The trade, huge in all senses, also transported two families back in time. Their NFL DeLorean read . Ed played for the 49ers that season, the only one the receiver spent in San Francisco, where he trained alongside legends such as Jerry Rice and played for Mike Shanahan, the Niners’ offensive coordinator. Christian wouldn’t be born for almost two years. Kyle, who turned 15 that season, was a ball boy.
None could foresee the events that would unfold 28 years later, how so many paths wound away from all the others, only to wind back to the same place, in different forms. How Mike Shanahan and Ed McCaffrey would win three Super Bowls together—one in San Francisco and two in Denver, where Mike became head coach and took Ed with him. How their sons would become better versions of the men themselves, picking the same jobs in the same profession. And how, one day many years in the future, the younger versions would team up just like their fathers had, to aim at the same goal—winning championships that have eluded them.
The experiment kicked off and, by January, Ed was calling from Sundance, heartened by his son’s development under his former ball boy and hoping both could return San Francisco to the perch it once owned, atop the NFL universe. The 49ers haven’t triumphed since that season of great symmetry. In the 29 seasons since, the franchise made 12 playoff appearances.
Ultimately, the Niners fell to the Eagles in the conference title game last season. But their experiment in familial team building has yielded the desired results and maybe more. Christian has scored in 15 straight games, including playoff clashes, breaking Rice’s Niners record (12) and tying his streak with those compiled by O.J. Simpson, John Riggins and Lenny Moore for the longest such streaks in NFL history. San Francisco remains one of the NFL’s best teams, 5–1 through more than one-third of the season. Heading into Week 6, their point differential stood at a misprint-level plus-113, while their offense ranked second to the Dolphins in expected points added per play.
From the podcast until Sunday, all seemed perfect for two families reunited in the same place. But threats resumed, on all fronts.
Ed said his favorite part of the podcast was the surprise cameo from Kyle, who came on near the end to pay tribute to his mom. They are still waiting for the moment they hope will be their favorite of the reunion in San Francisco. They know that moment, intimately, from having lived it a generation ago.
