Three-time Super Bowl champ has long history with family of Rams head coach

ATLANTA — A local football star with three Super Bowl rings has a special reason to root for the Los Angeles Rams at Atlanta’s Super Bowl.

Former San Francisco 49ers lineman Steve Wallace played for the grandfather of Rams coach Sean McVay back in the day and remembers McVay from when he was just a kid.

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Wallace told Channel 2's Berndt Petersen that he'll always have respect for John McVay.

"A man's man. Meaning it was a first-name basis. You go in and it's just John," Wallace said.

[READ: Marist remembers Sean McVay before his success leading Rams to Super Bowl LIII]

John McVay was general manager of the 49ers when the likes of Wallace and Joe Montana were the very best in the NFL.

That's when Wallace met John McVay's son, former WSB-TV General Manager Tim McVay, and grandson, Sean McVay.

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"I had a chance to watch Sean play at Marist School and watch him make some big runs. I saw this kid was some kind of athlete,” Wallace said.

That same Sean McVay is now 33 years old, the youngest NFL head coach to lead a team to the Super Bowl.

[READ: Atlanta-native Sean McVay wins NFL Coach of the Year award]

Wallace said in the McVay family, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

“He just showed a level of appreciation for the 49ers, what we accomplished. I said, 'This guy gets it.' I definitely have to pull for him,” Wallace said.

Wallace admits there’s another reason he’s pulling for LA. He doesn’t want Tom Brady and the New England Patriots to break all the records held by Montana and the San Francisco 49ers.

Cox Media Group