San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan pushed back against the notion that he’s unable to “win the big one”, two days after his team’s heartbreaking Super Bowl 58 loss against the Kansas City Chiefs.
Shanahan has now lost both his Super Bowl appearances as the 49ers’ head coach. And of course, he was the Atlanta Falcons’ offensive coordinator in their Super Bowl 51 collapse and defeat against the New England Patriots.
The 44-year-old is 0-3 in Super Bowls as a coach now. In all three of those games, his team led by double-digit points at some point. Throw in his two NFC Championship Game losses (2021 and 2022), and it’s fair to wonder if Shanahan will ever break through.
While speaking to reporters on Tuesday, however, Shanahan rejected the notion that he’s unable to win football’s ultimate prize, via Tyler Sullivan of CBS Sports:
“We’ve won a lot of big games here, we’ve won a lot of big games to get into playoffs, the fact that we keep getting there shows you how much we win big games…These two Super Bowls have been tough, losing to Kansas City. But to think that if we win that, that means I can win a big game? No, that means our team won the Super Bowl.
“You guys can have any narrative you want, but the success or the failure, it comes down to one game, and I hope that I can be a part of a team that wins a game at the end of the year, but to say the Niners can’t win a big game would be an extremely inaccurate statement.”
Shanahan can also take inspiration from Andy Reid, the very head coach who’s prevented him from winning two Super Bowls. Reid lost four NFC Championship Games with the Philadelphia Eagles, a Super Bowl (in the 2004 season) and an AFC title game with Kansas City in 2018.
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Fast forward to 2024, and Reid is now a key architect of a Kansas City dynasty that now has three championships in four years.
All Shanahan can do is keep on trying. We know his team is capable of getting this-close to the Lombardi Trophy. Shanahan and the 49ers can only hope that the consistent regular season success will eventually culminate in that elusive Super Bowl title.
