Chiefs never make Super Bowl excuses – a lesson the 49ers must learn

USA Today

5 days ago

It's patently fair to think that both the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers will be among the leading contenders to win Super Bowl 60 at the end of the 2025 NFL season. Both teams have star-studded rosters. They've combined for 11 appearances in conference title games over the past seven seasons – K.C. qualifying each of those years – a period when no other club has made it that far more than twice. And, of course, the Chiefs and Niners have met on two of the past six Super Sundays.
Yet Thursday seemed to illustrate a – maybe the – major difference between these proud franchises and might even be the reason that Kansas City beat San Francisco in those Super Bowls while winning another and appearing in five overall since the start of the 2019 campaign.
Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, a three-time Super Bowl MVP, was asked about the challenge of resetting and resuming the relentless football grind after a Super Bowl defeat – February's blowout loss to the Philadelphia Eagles preventing Kansas City from becoming the first team to capture three successive Lombardi Trophies.
'I feel like I focus every year, because I know how special of a run that we're on and how many years left I'll have with all these great players and a great team,' said Mahomes. 'And every team is different and you don't want to miss an opportunity.
'When you lose a Super Bowl, I think there's sometimes in those workouts – you might be a little tired – (but) you have that extra, added motivation to finish even harder or finish even stronger.'
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It was the latest insight into the mindset of Mahomes and his dynasty – and both might have a case as the greatest in league history by the time their runs conclude – especially in the face of their rare setbacks. And let's not forget, the 2024 Chiefs somehow won a franchise record 15 regular-season games and, then, the conference – even though they couldn't protect Mahomes (sacked a career-high 36 times), couldn't consistently run the ball and lost No. 1 wideout Rashee Rice to a season-ending knee injury in Week 4.
Compare that to the 2024 49ers, who followed up their overtime loss to Kansas City in Super Bowl 58 with a 6-11 campaign – their worst since 2018, when the team was forced to use three starting quarterbacks. And, yes, last season's Niners were stripped of several key players – Christian McCaffrey, Brandon Aiyuk, Dre Greenlaw, Javon Hargrave – due to injuries for most of the year.
Yet coach Kyle Shanahan, who previously signaled his most recent outfit was out of sorts from training camp on, admitted Thursday, 'I felt guys weren't ready to come back. And I understood that. But I told them how I won't really understand it this year.'
The dreaded Super Bowl hangover, emotional debilitation or whatever you want to call it felt like the latest excuse for an organization that's had several as its championship drought now extends beyond three decades.
There was former quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo's fourth-quarter overthrow of wide open Emmanuel Sanders in Super Bowl 54, a game the 49ers probably win if the connection is made. There was safety Jaquiski Tartt's dropped interception in the fourth quarter of the 2021 NFC championship game – and if he hangs on, San Francisco (not the Los Angeles Rams) almost surely reaches Super Bowl 56. Then there was the late defensive collapse and Shanahan's controversial decision to receive the opening kickoff of overtime in Super Bowl 58 – which actually might have been the right call regardless – which Kansas City ultimately claimed 25-22 on a game-ending touchdown.
The Niners have also been occasionally sideswiped by major injuries in recent seasons and always seem to be in the midst of significant contractual issues every summer – though that shouldn't be the case in 2025, especially now that Brock Purdy is no longer on the quarterbacking version of welfare.
Still, funny how that stuff never seems to affect the Chiefs, who will reach the league's version of the final four no matter what roadblocks are thrown in front of them. Coach Andy Reid attributes much of it to his veteran leaders, players like Mahomes who don't skate during or skip out on the team's offseason program.
'All the good leaders have been here,' Reid said. 'It's good to have them there. When they're there, it's a certain energy that comes with it. Expectations from all the … new guys – free agent type or the college kids – and they set a tempo with that.'
Meanwhile, Shanahan's just glad to have perfect attendance for a change after so many years of having the spring and summer sidetracked in some capacity by financial standoffs between players and the front office.
'I thought the coolest thing was everyone being there on the first day,' Shanahan said in reference to the start of this year's offseason program.
'We had every guy show up and I didn't have to call anyone and beg them, which said a lot.'
Sure does, even if Shanahan intended it as a compliment to his current crew after several expensive veterans were purged in recent months as the team cleared room for Purdy's five-year, $265 million extension.
Tight end George Kittle, who was extended along with Purdy and linebacker Fred Warner, says having the business side of football resolved should help on the field.
'I'm glad they decided to do that,' said the six-time Pro Bowler. 'That's awesome for us because now we have everybody in the building that's just focused on playing football and focusing on just getting a little bit better every single day.
'It's good for football because now all we're focused on is football.'
San Francisco's stars paid, the team drawing the league's easiest schedule (the Niners' 2025 opponents had a collective winning percentage of .415 last season), McCaffrey apparently back to 100% and after an atypically long offseason to rest and recover, Shanahan knows this year's squad has little to rationalize.
'The year before last year coming off the '23 season was one of the shorter breaks that we've had, having that tough loss in the Super Bowl and coming back really just like six weeks later,' he said.
'It's never fun to have January off, but those extra five weeks add up a lot, and I think guys were itching to get back this time, excited to get back, ready to go for the first day, and it's been a lot more fun that way.'
As for the Chiefs, saddled with another tough first-place schedule full of prime-time games plus a Week 1 pilgrimage to Brazil, they'll turn the adversity of an embarrassing Super Bowl showing into their own fun.
'I think it'll be good for us at the end of the day,' said Mahomes. 'I mean, obviously looking back you want to win the game, but a lot of those (younger teammates) hadn't lost one – hadn't ended a season on a loss that are on this team now. So I'm sure they'll be motivated to go back out there and try to find a way to get to the Super Bowl and win it this year.'
A lesson the current 49ers have yet to learn and a goal they have yet to reach.
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