49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan’s last two trips to the Super Bowl have seen his teams give up leads in the fourth quarter on their way to losses.
Shanahan was the offensive coordinator for the Falcons in Super Bowl LI when they were up 28-3 to the Patriots before ultimately losing in overtime and the 49ers led the Chiefs 20-10 heading into the final quarter of Super Bowl LIV. The Chiefs won that game 31-20 and the two losses led to a question on Thursday about what a third Super Bowl loss would do to strengthen the idea that Shanahan can’t win the biggest game of the year.
Shanahan said that whether narratives are “good or bad,” they are just narratives and that he’s not going to let ones created by other people determine his view of himself.
“I just don’t want regrets,” Shanahan said, via Nick Wagoner of ESPN.com. “I just want to do everything that makes sense to myself, that makes sense for our team. And when you do that, that’s what I have found. No matter how hard something is or good something is, you always keep perspective of what it really is. If you want your perspective to be someone else’s narrative, good luck being happy in life. Or successful.”
Shanahan is not the first coach to face these kinds of questions and one need only look to the other sideline on Sunday to find another one. Chiefs head coach Andy Reid heard them when he coached the Eagles and continued to hear them in Kansas City until that win over the 49ers in Miami in February 2020 got him over the hump. Shanahan’s desire to win this week may not be tied to his legacy, but it would have a similar effect for many people.
