49ERS WILL LEARN THIS HARD LESSON, JUST AS 1986 BROWNS DID

By STEVE KING

I heard the words of San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan following his team’s 31-20 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl 54 on Sunday night, and I had to chuckle.

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“We’ll lick our wounds, and we’ll get over this,” he said.

Then he added, “We’ll be fired up for next year.”

There is no doubt that the 49ers will lick their wounds, and that they will be fired up for next season.

But they won’t get over this. They just won’t.

Unless they are somehow totally different than any team in the history of the game, they will be scarred by what happened. It will haunt them forever.

They won’t win a Super Bowl with this basic group of players and coaches.

The 49ers were ahead 20-10 well into the fourth quarter. The Chiefs were staggering. All they had to do was step on their throats and take the last breath of life out of them.

Indeed, the window of opportunity was wide open for the 49ers to win their first Super Bowl in a quarter-century. The stars were all aligned in just the right way. The football gods had picked the 49ers. It was their time to win it all.

But they couldn’t get it done. The Chiefs obliterated them from that point on.

Four years ago, the Atlanta Falcons, with Shanahan as offensive coordinator, were leading the New England Patriots 28-3 with two minutes left in the third quarter. They ended up losing in overtime, and  the Falcons haven’t contended since. Head coach Dan Quinn, who brushed off that loss, nearly lost his job after this season.

Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll assured everyone that his team would regroup and rebound after losing to the Patriots in the Super Bowl several years before that when, for whatever reason, they called for a pass at the goal line in the final seconds. The Seahawks haven’t seriously contended since.

And who can forget the 1986 Browns, who were victimized by “The Drive” in the AFC Championship Game? They were determined to come back and defeat the Denver Broncos and get to the Super Bowl.

I understand Shanahan’s fortitude, but I also understand how it works. I feel bad for the former Browns offensive coordinator.