The longtime football executive earned seven Super Bowl rings with the 49ers and Broncos.

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Neal Dahlen, a longtime executive of the San Francisco 49ers and Denver Broncos whose seven Super Bowl rings are tied with Tom Brady for second-most all-time, has died.

Dahlen was 85 when he passed away on Sunday, according to his family. He had been a longtime resident of Aurora.

Dahlen was a 25-year NFL executive with the 49ers (1979-1995) and Broncos (1996-2003). He was a key member of the 49ers player personnel department when that franchise won Super Bowls in the seasons of 1981, 1984, 1988, 1989 and 1994, the latter of which included Mike Shanahan as San Francisco’s offensive coordinator.

When Shanahan became the Broncos’ head coach in 1995, he brought Dahlen with him a year later. Dahlen had a major role as Shanahan’s confidante in constructing the Broncos’ Super Bowl XXXII and XXXIII championship teams in 1997-98.

“Neal was a fine man,’’ said Jim Saccomano, the Broncos’ former longtime public relations director. “He never attempted to be anything he wasn’t. He did his job, did it very well. He was organized and was good at evaluating players.”

Dahlen became the Broncos’ general manager in 1999, then moved back to director of football administration in 2022 until he retired in 2023.

Only Bill Belichick with eight Super Bowl rings has more than Dahlen’s seven.

For all his serious professionalism, Dahlen had some unique quirks.

“I remember Neal wore this wrist watch,’’ Saccomano said. “When he was in high school, he went to lost and found. He saw it and he liked it a lot.”

He was told by the lost and found department they had to hold the watch for a month. He went back a month later to inquire about the watch. It was still there and it was his.

“He wore it every day,’’ Saccomano said.

According to a 2019 story in the San Francisco Chronicle, Dahlen considered seven to be his lucky number as it was the number his boyhood hero Mickey Mantle wore with the New York Yankees. Starting with his high school coaching career, Dahlen kept seven coins, totaling 77 cents, in his pocket at all times.

Dahlen and his wife Nancy had four children, Laurie, Sherri, Christy and Tim.