Falcons OC Kyle Shanahan loses playbook for 30 minutes during media session
Cue the New England Patriots conspiracy theories.
For half an hour at the end of the Atlanta Falcons’ media night session, offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan was in a state of panic, unable to find his Super Bowl playbook, according to USA Today.
[Ditch the paper and pen – play Squares Pick’em for the Big Game!]
As it turned out, it wasn’t some low-level Patriots employee nicknamed The Infiltrator who snagged Shanahan’s playbook from the interview area, but longtime San Francisco Examiner columnist Art Spander, who mistook the Falcons coach’s backpack for his own. The 78-year-old Spander returned after realizing the error of his ways, but not before Shanahan spent 30 minutes pulling his hair out.
“That would have been bad,” Shanahan told USA Today in a text message.
“I’ve screwed up before,” added Spander, on hand for his 40th of the 51 Super Bowls, “but I’ve never picked up the wrong bag.”
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Is Shanahan sure that wasn’t just Bill Belichick dressed up as Spander? I guess we’ll never know, unless Roger Goodell launches one of those yearlong independent investigations into backpack-gate.
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Ben Rohrbach is a contributor for Ball Don’t Lie and Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at rohrbach_ben@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @brohrbach
