<
        >

          NFL Nation

          Which LaFleur -- Mike or Matt -- will join their parents at the Super Bowl?

          play
          Rex expects a different Rodgers versus the 49ers (1:21)

          Rex Ryan is confident Aaron Rodgers will perform better against the 49ers than he did in the regular season. (1:21)

          • Rob Demovsky, ESPN Staff WriterJan 15, 2020, 08:06 PM
            Close
              Rob Demovsky is an NFL reporter at ESPN and covers the Green Bay Packers. He has covered the Packers since 1997 and joined ESPN in 2013. Demovsky is a two-time Wisconsin Sportswriter of the Year as selected by the NSSA. You can follow him on Twitter at @RobDemovsky.
            Follow on X

          GREEN BAY, Wis. -- Denny and Kristi LaFleur will have their loyalties divided in Sunday's NFC Championship Game.

          With sons on both sides, one thing is certain.

          "Well, I know they're going to the Super Bowl one way or the other," their oldest son, Matt, said.

          Matt LaFleur wants to be the one coaching in it.

          In his first season as Green Bay Packers head coach, he has his team in the NFC title game on Sunday against the San Francisco 49ers (6:40 p.m. ET, Fox). His younger brother, Mike, is the 49ers' passing-game coordinator.

          "It's mixed emotions," Matt said of his parents. "It is what it is. It certainly was last time, too. Anybody that knows me knows how much my family means to me -- my brother, my parents and my wife and kids. It is an emotional deal, but this is not about us. This is about the Green Bay Packers versus the San Francisco 49ers, two great football teams, with the opportunity to go to the Super Bowl. It doesn't get any bigger than that."

          Putting the focus on the two teams might be the proper thing for a coach to do in this situation, but it's not so easy to deal with for the parents.

          "There's been a lot of emotions going in a lot of directions, but you know what, at the end of the day somebody is going to win, somebody is going to lose and we're just going to hope for the best," Denny LaFleur said on ESPN's Adam Schefter Podcast.

          The last time the Packers played at the 49ers, in November, Matt sent his wife, BreAnne, and two sons to California early to stay with Mike and his family.

          Before that game he joked: "I told [BreAnne], ‘Go steal his backpack or something.’"

          The Packers lost that game 37-8.

          When asked about his family's travel plans for this game, he said: "They're not going."

          "I think there's a little different vibe," LaFleur said. "I'll just leave it at that. I haven't really talked to him much at all. It'll probably be that way for the remainder of the week."

          LaFleur's ties to the 49ers’ coaching staff run deep. He worked for 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan with three different teams. San Francisco defensive coordinator Robert Saleh is the one who got LaFleur into the NFL in the first place.

          "There's a lot of great coaches over there," LaFleur said. "Kyle Shanahan, Mike McDaniel, Bobby Turner -- I've worked with all those guys -- Jon Embree. I could go on and on and on. I have a lot of respect for their ability to dissect the tape and come up with a good game plan. I've seen it firsthand. I've lived it with those guys.

          "I know they're going to have stuff ready for us. It's on us to go out there and make sure that we're disciplined in our approach defensively and that we trust what we see, we trust our preparation, and then, ultimately, it's going to go down to execution."

          When asked about his brother, he joked: "First of all, who said he's a great coach? I never said that."

          Denny and Kristi are preparing for the tremendous high for one son and devastating low for the other on Sunday but are trying to keep things in perspective.

          "To get to where they are at is difficult, and they got there and you’ve got to celebrate the accomplishments that they've had," Kristi said. "Somebody is going to lose, but they still need to celebrate what has been accomplished."