After a heartbreaking NFC Championship Game loss to the Los Angeles Rams to close out the 2021 season, Kyle Shanahan had zero interest in watching his NFC West rival and friend Sean McVay compete in, and eventually win, Super Bowl LVI.
Shanahan sat down with 49ers play-by-play broadcaster Greg Papa on the latest edition of NBC Sports Bay Area's "49ers Game Plan" prior to San Francisco's Week 4 "Monday Night Football" matchup against the Los Angeles Rams, where he revealed how he attempted -- but ultimately failed -- to avoid watching the Rams in the Super Bowl last February.
"I tried not to," Shanahan admitted to Papa. "I actually flew to Mexico, tried to plan it during the Super Bowl because if I'm by a TV, I mean I enjoy football so it would be really hard for me not to watch it, but I knew I would just get too worked up. So I tried to be on a plane, my wife and I, but we landed a little early, got to the hotel. They're having like a Super Bowl party out in the hotel, so I'm like we're not going to that. But I got to my room, turn it on and I got hooked. Cincinnati I thought really dominated that whole game, I thought they really hung around, thought it was really similar to our [NFC Championship Game], they hung around and it was close and then right at the end, Aaron [Donald] made a few plays that took over."
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Shanahan couldn't help but notice the similarities between Cincinnati's collapse to the Rams and the 49ers' from two weeks prior. The usual suspects ended up playing a role late in both games.
"It was very eerie to watch it, then you watch [Matthew] Stafford come back and do that no-look to [Cooper] Kupp for the 40-yarder, that was unbelievable. And then you watched Aaron take over."
As close, personal friends with McVay, Shanahan ultimately was happy for the Rams coach but certainly was not rooting for a division rival, especially after just having lost to them.
"You don't like your own division, that's how it is," Shanahan added. "Just like our fans and everything, so that's what you get used to. When it's all said and done, I am happy for him personally. That's the stuff you want for all coaches and people that you've worked with. But by no means are you excited and enjoying it, just like they aren't when they watch us have success. This league is tight, I think the players in this league are tight. Players pull for each other and I think coaches do the same. But we're all very competitive, extremely competitive. It's not fun when we're in the battle but once it gets aside you can really mess with each other and it really doesn't change the friendship."
San Francisco 49ers
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The Super Bowl is inevitable no matter where you go and Shanahan's plan to avoid it was doomed from the start.
Fast forward almost eight months, and the two teams are preparing to meet again. With the Championship Game loss still fresh on the minds of Shanahan and the 49ers, they will have their first opportunity for revenge on Monday night at Levi's Stadium.