Come on, Peggy Shanahan. Let’s have it.
Hubby Mike? Or the kid, Kyle?
“Mike asked me (Sunday) night after the game,” Peggy Shanahan said. “He said, ‘Well, who are you rooting for?’ I said, ‘Mike, do not ask me that question again.’ ”
Peggy’s husband, Mike Shanahan, is the Broncos’ head coach. They will be married 31 years on Valentine’s Day. Who are the Broncos playing Thursday night? The Houston Texans, whose quarterbacks coach is Kyle Shana-han, who turns 28 on Friday, the day after the big game.
The whole gang will be there. Kyle’s sister and the Shanahans’ daughter, Krystal, will fly in from New York with her boyfriend. Peggy’s mom and dad will be there. Peggy’s sister and her family will come over from Dallas. Even Mike Shanahan will skip the Broncos’ charter flight home to hang around Houston for one more night to celebrate Kyle’s birthday.
In all, there will be 21 Shanahan relatives gathering to attend the game, fawn over Stella, Mike’s and Peggy’s 4-month-old granddaughter, and first child of Kyle and Mandy, and eat some birthday cake.
Mike Shanahan said at his news conference Monday if Kyle were a head coach, there would be no doubt — Peggy would be rooting for her son. But because Kyle is an assistant, and Peggy’s heartstrings have become tinted in orange and blue over the years, Mike believes his wife will be leaning his way Thursday.
“I think so, but I just don’t want to let Kyle know that,” Peggy said. “But we’re all going to be sitting with Mandy, Kyle’s wife, at the game so we’re going to have to be very careful.”
Perhaps a Broncos victory and a fine performance by well-schooled Texans quarterback Sage Rosenfels would be best for Peggy. The Shanahans went through a similar experience in 2004, when Kyle was breaking in as bottom-level coach with Tampa Bay and his dad led the Broncos to victory there.
“But that wasn’t as big as this,” Peggy said.
Can Peggy envision the day when Kyle becomes an NFL head coach?
“Oh, it scares me to death,” she said. “Makes me sick to my stomach, actually. Especially if Mike was head coaching against him. That would be horrible. I don’t think I could go to the game.”
Mike Klis: 303-954-1055 or mklis@denverpost.com
