There’s a certain inevitability to a third meeting between rivals, especially when everything is on the line. The Los Angeles Rams and Seattle Seahawks know each other well at this point, as well as every scar left behind by earlier games.
They split their regular-season matchups in dramatic fashion, and now the NFC Championship Game offers no reset button. Just one more night, one final reckoning.
A Look at Chris Shula’s Career as a Player
As the stadium lights fall on the quarterbacks and play-callers, one cornerstone figure operates just outside the glare: Rams defensive coordinator Chris Shula.
The Shula name carries weight in football circles, so it is natural to assume Chris Shula followed a familiar script. NFL pedigree. Draft weekend. A few seasons on Sundays. But that story skips an important truth.
Shula never played in the NFL, and understanding why helps explain the kind of coach he has become. Born in Feb. 1986, in Miami, Florida, Shula grew up in a family where football was less a profession than a shared language. His father, Dave Shula, coached in the NFL. His grandfather, Don Shula, is still spoken of in reverent tones decades after retiring.
Yet Chris’s playing career was grounded, almost deliberately modest. After attending high school in Fort Lauderdale, he returned to Ohio in 2004 to attend Miami University. There, he played linebacker for the RedHawks from 2004 to 2008, starting for two seasons. When his college career ended, the NFL did not come calling.
Rather than waiting for a door that might never open, he began working towards something more tangible for him. From 2010 to 2013, Shula worked as a graduate assistant at Ball State University and Indiana University.
In 2014, he got his first full-time assistant position as defensive coordinator at John Carroll University. The results that followed were tangible: a trip to the NCAA Division III quarterfinals. He was in the NFL in 2015, joining the San Diego Chargers as a defensive quality control coach.
Two years later, the Los Angeles Rams brought him aboard as assistant linebackers coach. What followed was a gradual, methodical rise. Shula moved from outside linebackers coach to linebackers coach, then into bigger roles.
By the time Rams won Super Bowl 56, Shula was already deeply woven into the team’s defensive identity, and on Feb. 2, the team promoted him to defensive coordinator. Under his guidance, Los Angeles ranks fifth in the PFSN’s DEFi with a score of 85.5.
