Living On The Edge

"You couldn't ask for a better guy to be with," says Jim Freer, a managing partner for a national accounting firm who was a neighbor when Shanahan coached the Raiders and now also vacations with the family. "He's a guy's guy, considerate, funny. I've seen him grow, too. Before, he was just interested in football. Now, he is like an information sponge, so observant. He's played in a tournament with me in Pebble Beach that includes a lot of business leaders, and you can see him soaking up what they said about their lives."

What the Freers see is the unbridled Shanahan. His teen-aged daughter, Krystal, has the same wacky instincts and they goad each other into becoming more reckless every year. It was Krystal who wanted to bungee jump in Cancun; her dad wound up not just jumping but doing tricks and somersaults to the delight of everyone but Peggy, who remained in her hotel room, convinced her husband was certifiably nuts. The race car? He joined friends at a test course near Las Vegas, but he wound up driving the fastest, topping off at 160 mph. The jump off the cliff in Jamaica? That was Shanahan's idea, and he admits it hurt his feet. But if he could handle 10 meters as a kid, why not higher as an adult?

The Shanahans have developed a network of dose friends during their various stops along a coaching journey that now has lasted 24 years. Among his best buddies are Elway, 38, and Bowlen, 54; Shanahan, 46, is the only coach in the league who regularly vacations with both his owner and quarterback. His friendship with Elway grew out of their years when Shanahan was an offensive assistant with the Broncos and spent hundreds of hours every season with his quarterback. The casual, mellow Bowlen is an exercise buff who works out regularly in the team's weight room, a place Shanahan also frequents. Their relationship began with casual exercise conversation; now, they and their wives take yearly trips to Hawaii at season's end.

"Mike and I are a lot alike," says Elway, whose celebration of last year's long-elusive Super Bowl triumph included a couples-only vacation with the Bowlens and Shanahans in Honolulu, then with Mike and Peggy in Kono. There, the Elways and Shanahans sipped wine and watched a tape of the victory over the Packers. That's also where coach and quarterback rented Harleys and got caught far away from their hotel in a heavy rainstorm, much to the merriment of their wives.

"We are very competitive and we like to win," Elway says. "We enjoy each other's company. We are around the same age, so it was natural to have common interests. He's a workaholic, but he also knows how to have fun. He can get away and go at it."

It hasn't always been natural for Shanahan to frolic. He was the typical oldest child in a large family, the serious overseer of five brothers and sisters. His father was an electrician and they grew up in a blue-collar Chicago enclave near O'Hare Airport, in a neighborhood spotted with industry, where sports and the influence of coaches affected Mike's life. He was anything but the class down, nor was he more than an average student. Only when his so-so grades pushed him to The Edge, when he had to do better to move on to the next step in his education, did he improve.