Nickolas Loza | February 2nd, 2020
After playing 20 games and going through a grueling season full of injuries and comebacks, the Chiefs and 49ers are here, in America’s biggest game, and on America’s biggest stage. Here lie the legacies of two storied franchises. The Kansas City Chiefs are trying to win a Super Bowl for the first time in 50 years, while the Niners trying to return to glory after a 25 year absence. Both teams are trying to erase the past, which they’d both love to forget for different reasons. The Niners are trying to erase the taste of their Super Bowl 47 defeat, and the Chiefs are trying to erase the taste or 25 years of being one or two games away from glory.
I’m going to give a brief description of what it would mean for these two franchises to take home the Super Bowl and what the everlasting effects will be on various players.
San Francisco 49ers
The 49ers are long removed from their glory days, they’ve gone through rough times, like having a 2-14 season followed by a 6-10 season and finally, a 4-12 season, but they’ve come out stronger than ever. After going 13-3 in the regular season, they beat the Vikings and Packers with relative ease to get here, and they’re now ready to take on the Chiefs.
It would mean the world for the Niners to win the Super Bowl, it would reverse 25 years of being just short of the promised land, and losing once in the Super Bowl. It would mean that one of the longest tenure 49ers’ as Joe Staley would finally get a ring. Jimmy Garoppolo said that he’s playing to get Staley a ring because he’s been here for so long and gone through so much as a Niner. The fact that this team is here after a 4-12 season, and a season with key injuries, is amazing.
People always compare any 49ers quarterback to the two 49er legends, Joe Montana and Steve Young. So for Jimm G to live up to those legends would remove any future criticisms of him if he stays as a 49er for a long time. Overall, the importance of this Super Bowl is obvious, it’s to get the 49ers back to glory and to remove any criticism that the 49ers are a team that has only seen success before the turn of the millennium.
Finally, this game is crucial for Kyle Shanahan, who is dogged by the famous 28-3 collapse when he was the offensive coordinator of the Falcons when they were stymied in the second half by the Patriots, and subsequently lost the Super Bowl 34-28. He was called into blame for being too aggressive and not milking the clock, and also calling questionable plays that got the Falcons pushed out of field goal range, which would’ve, if the field goal went through, pushed the game out of reach from the Patriots. So in other words, this game is key for him to shed that narrative.
Kansas City Chiefs
The Chiefs this year went 12-4 but were a team that got blessed by a lucky series of events, and then built off that. Going into week 17, in order to get the number two seed, the Chiefs needed to win against the Chargers, and have the lowly Dolphins win on the road against the Patriots. All those things happened.
Then when it came time for the playoffs the Titans beat the longtime pain in the neck Patriots in the AFC Wild Card game, the Titans then beat the number one seed Ravens, paving the way for the Chiefs to get to where they needed to be. After meeting their match against the Texans in the divisional round, they came back from 24-0 down to win the game. They then vanquished the Titans in the AFC Championship Game to get to the Super Bowl. This finally eliminated the last 25 years of defeat and being one step shy of the Super Bowl.
The Chiefs made a legacy of playoff failure, so for them to win this Super Bowl would flip the script and make the narratives that dog them vanish to thin air. It’s especially important because the Chiefs have generational talents on their team, like Patrick Mahomes, and others. For Mahomes to win a Super Bowl in only his second full year of starting would undoubtedly make him the best quarterback in history through their first two years of starting.
Winning this game is also important for Andy Reid. Reid is a notorious playoff loser, having spent years with 13 years with the Eagles and making a whopping four NFC Championship Games, but only winning one of them and then losing the subsequent Super Bowl to the Patriots. He hasn’t had the greatest success with the Chiefs until now, so this game is crucial for getting another contract in the future and nursing his legacy. That’s what it would mean to the Chiefs and winning a Super Bowl.
Conclusion
To conclude this article, both of these teams’ fans deserve a ring. The 49er fans who have been a fan for a long time deserve a ring, and Kansas City deserves a ring based on their amazing fans who have supported this team through thick and thin. As for the winner of the game, I’m going to pick the 49ers to win 33-30. This game is going to be the classic scenario of “whoever makes a mistake first will lose the game”.
With the Chiefs offense being so reliant on Mahomes, if the 49ers are able to get one extra red zone possession, and keep the ball in their running backs hands and prevent a situation where Garoppolo has to drop back to pass to much, the Niners should be able to win this game. With that being said, it’s about that time to gather around the TV and watch Super Bowl 54 from Miami Hard Rock Stadium, where the legacies of two franchises will be put to the test.
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