Shanahan discovered his bag was missing following a Falcons media session last night.

Inside- the team's playbook for Super Bowl LI.

In front of journalists, Shanahan paced the room looking for the missing bag but could not locate it.

After nearly 30 minutes of searching and phone calls the coach was frantic.

As it turned out, Shanahan’s bag was mistakenly taken by San Francisco Examiner columnist Art Spander.

Spander, 78, is covering his 40th Super Bowl and was unaware he had taken the wrong bag until contacted by a fellow journalist.

Spander then returned the prized possession to an extremely relieved Shanahan. 

“That would have been bad,” Shanahan told USA TODAY Sports.

Spander saw the funny side.

“I’ve screwed up before, but I’ve never picked up the wrong bag,” Spander told USA TODAY Sports. “And there’s no way I’d have a game plan.”