© Stan Szeto | 2018 Jun 12
Kyle Shanahan is a big Lil Wayne fan. So big in fact, that Shanahan named his 8-year-old son Carter, at least in part, after the rapper, whose full name is Dwayne Michael Carter Jr.
That story surfaced earlier this year when Shanahan’s longtime friend Chris Simms revealed the fun fact on his podcast. Word apparently got around to Lil Wayne, who sent Shanahan and his son a care package, via Pierre Garcon, consisting of an autographed poster and copy of the album Tha Carter IV for Shanahan and a signed poster and copy of Tha Carter III for Carter.
49ers coach Kyle Shanahan named his son Carter after Lil’ Wayne so @LilTunechi sent them both a surprise gift! pic.twitter.com/ssn12TIVs6
— Karen Civil (@KarenCivil) July 26, 2018
Here’s what Lil Wayne sent Kyle Shanahan.
“Hell, I have 3 boys of my own and only one is named after me!! LOL!”
??? pic.twitter.com/zQExaT7Gyd— Simms & Lefkoe (@SimmsAndLefkoe) July 26, 2018
“Mine has the cuss words, the one he gave to my son was edited,” Shanahan said via ESPN. “That was very thoughtful, so I can actually play it for my son. It was pretty neat. He was pumped. I showed him when I got home. He still doesn’t know how cool it actually is.
“I just always had to sit in rooms and break down film and draw up plays and it started when I was in Tampa with (Jon) Gruden,” Shanahan said of how he got into Lil Wayne. “The only thing that gets you through is just sitting there and listening to music. I started out when I was doing that…It was The Carter I.”
Shanahan wouldn’t go as far as saying that he named his son after the rapper, but that he became interested in the name because of Lil Wayne.
“If I told you it was 100 percent that, my wife would kill me,” Shanahan said. “So, the Carter 1 started it and I was just always into that. And when my wife told me she liked the name Carter, it was easy for me because I was pretty obsessed at the time.”
“It’s awesome,” fullback Kyle Juszczyk said of Shanahan being a hip-hop fan. “I enjoy the hell out of it. He’s just very relatable. We have a young team and to have a coach who has street cred like that, it’s just — I don’t know — it’s just easier to take things from him because you feel like he knows where you’re coming from.”