The numbers of boys and young men wanting to become part of the Eden Prairie football machine for a couple of decades starting in the mid-1990s was phenomenal. Arriving a few hours early for a home game, there were various youth games being played outside the main stadium on perhaps a half-dozen fields.

Somewhere in that tangle of youthful hopefuls, two football staff members involved in the Super Bowl on Sunday, Feb. 8, were getting a start at this extra-low level of a coaching tree.

Todd Downing has been an NFL assistant for eight NFL teams over the past two decades, and he has been reunited with New England coach Mike Vrabel this season as Patriots receivers coach.

Yet, when looking at Downing’s Wikipedia page, there is a notation of where he started his coaching journey:

“Eden Prairie HS (MN) 1999-2000 Assistant freshmen coach.”

Mike Grant, the builder of what was an Eden Prairie dynasty and who reached 400 high school coaching victories this past season, said with a laugh:

“I think that’s great — Todd making sure Wiki readers didn’t think he started out as our head freshman coach. He was an assistant, coaching the ‘C’ freshman team."

The other Super Bowl participant with an Eden Prairie connection is Brian Eayrs, the director of football research for the Seahawks, who was brought to Seattle by coach Pete Carroll in 2013. Brian is the son of Mike Eayrs, the godfather of using analytics to win NFL games.

Mike was an assistant coach to Dan Runkle, who died Jan. 16 at age79, at then-titled Mankato State. Carroll was there for Vikings camp as an assistant for Bud Grant’s one comeback season in 1985, and Eayrs convinced Pete of the importance of trends, numbers and seemingly isolated events in winning football games.

“I remember my dad saying, ‘There is this guy down here in Mankato, he has charts, numbers, specific plays that show what is likely to lead to winning games,’” Mike Grant said. “Bud had the old-school image, but he also had a very curious mind and found Mike Eayrs’ information to be very interesting.”

Mike Eayrs’ first NFL job as an analyst was with the Vikings, and then he spent the bulk of his career at Green Bay. Son Brian Eayrs played football at Chaska High, was a backup quarterback at Augsburg for three seasons and took a coaching job with Mike Grant.

After an 18-16 victory over Indianapolis on Dec. 14, Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald gave Eayrs a game ball for his clock management. Seattle used all of its second-half timeouts after the Colts crossed midfield in the final 70 seconds, getting the ball back with 47 seconds left after Indianapolis kicked a 60-yard field goal for a 16-15 lead. The Seahawks responded with a 56-yard field goal with 18 seconds left for the decisive points.

“Brilliant guy … just like his dad," Mike Grant said of Eayrs. “Did an excellent job coaching our freshmen in 2002. Assistant freshman coach — just like Downing.

“This is going to be a tough Super Bowl to watch, rooting for both of them. Then again, I can’t lose, because if the Patriots win, I’ll be thrilled for Todd, and if Brian gets another Super Bowl win with the Seahawks, that will be great, too.

“Todd wasn’t our greatest-ever quarterback as a player at Eden Prairie, and Brian was a backup at Augsburg, but they were dedicated to the game.”

They must have been, if they made it from “assistant” freshman coaches in high school to the game with the Roman numerals.