Latest news with #SuperSundays
USA Today
7 days ago
- Sport
- USA Today
Chiefs never make Super Bowl excuses – a lesson the 49ers must learn
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.' NFL POWER RANKINGS: Where teams stand post-draft 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. All NFL news on and off the field. Sign up for USA TODAY's 4th and Monday newsletter.
The Guardian
24-03-2025
- Sport
- The Guardian
Why the Nations League is our new favourite thing
Sundays – especially those that are not branded by our TV satellite overlords as Super Sundays during these international breaks, have always given Football Daily the scaries. When the feeling of impending doom over another working week is not interrupted by the afternoon offerings of the usual Premier League kick-offs, Toby Carvery gravy and MOTD2's '2 Good 2 Bad', this particular tea-timely email starts getting a little jittery when the Sunday sun goes down. Yesterday, reader – with the weekend disappearing over the horizon faster than a Bobby Baggio penalty – Football Daily needed saving. We just didn't think the thing to save us would be the Nations League. Uefa's shiny new(ish) international concept has copped some stick since its inception, including from this parish. We're still not sure exactly what the Nations League is or what it does beyond (according to Uefa) 'minimising meaningless friendlies and giving nations competitive encounters with equally-ranked teams' and providing a convoluted qualification system to a 48-team World Cup that is now almost impossible not to qualify for. But seeing as we're in the business of watching exciting, well-matched, high-quality matches between top-tier teams that actually seem to care about the game they are playing, it turns out the Nations League is something of a success. If you tuned in to any of the quarter-final second legs on Sunday night – Spain v Netherlands, Germany v Italy, France v Croatia and Portugal v Denmark – you might have seen why. In those four matches there were four comebacks that would make The Karate Kid blush, three extra-times, two sudden-death penalty shootouts and drama that would send Alan Partridge up a pear tree shouting 'Did you see that?!' every time the ball hit the back of the net. And between Spain 3-3 Netherlands (5-5 agg, 6-5 pens), Germany 3-3 Italy (5-4 agg), Portugal 5-2 Denmark (aet, 5-3 agg) and France 2-0 Croatia (2-2 agg, 5-4 pens), said ball hit said net 21 times on the night. Subplots included, but were not limited to, a Lamine Yamal wondergoal, Cristiano Ronaldo taking one of the worst penalties of all time and then hopping around, knacked, on the sidelines like the Euro 2016 final, Bournemouth wonderkid Dean Huijsen balling out in his first start for Spain against the country of his birth, Germany scoring one of the most bizarre goals in recent memory from a corner (thanks Gianluigi Donnarumma!) before nearly blowing a 5-1 aggregate lead and an all-time goalkeeping performance from Croatia's Dominik Livakovic in Paris. To cut a thrilling long story short, Germany will now play Portugal in their semi-final, and Spain face France in the other. Football Daily will be there, no matter what. Nations League is in, baby, everything else is out. To the poor souls braving Wembley on Monday evening for the World Cup Group K qualifier between England and Latvia – to help decide a group that also includes Andorra, Albania and Serbia – we salute you. Join Daniel Harris from 7.45pm GMT for hot World Cup qualifying minute-by-minute coverage of England 2-0 Latvia. He makes you understand the spaces on the pitch like no other coach and he lives the game emotionally like no other coach. I was brainwashed by [Pep] Guardiola, but in a good way. It was like I was at university. What I experienced with him allowed me to raise my level and keep that level to this day. It's not that I was an idiot before I arrived at Manchester City but I realised that I played football in completely the wrong way' – Danilo gets his chat on with Thiago Rabelo about his days in higher education at the Etihad Stadium, toxic social media abominations and much, much more. Is Chris Wood the next Russian nesting doll (Friday's Football Daily)? Getting into the referee's notebook by putting his name in other people's notebooks, and then the media wrote it in their 'notebooks'. And now I'm writing another hopeful letter to Football Daily. At over six feet tall and made of Wood, he has a good start' – Keith Taylor. I can't have been the only person to check out the engineering marvel that is New Caledonia's Pont de Mouli after its shoutout in Friday's Football Daily. Having compared the before and after photos, it's safe to say it's the finest glow-up I've seen a bridge have since the former Southampton, Chelsea and England left back had his hair transplant' – Jim Hearson. October 2021: Thomas Tuchel is angry after Thiago Silva returns late from his international duty with Brazil. March 2022: Tuchel says 'you can't discuss depth in the team when my players are involved in international breaks'. March 2025: No rotation for the sake of the clubs. Guess who? Yep!' – Krishna Moorthy. Send letters to Today's letter o' the day winner is … Jim Hearson, who gets a copy of Engulfed: how Saudi Arabia Bought Sport, and the World. It's available in the Guardian Bookshop. Terms and conditions for our competitions, when we have them, can be viewed here. As international weekend and the lower reaches of the EFL chugged along, a couple of prestige friendlies took place. Everybody loves a 'legends' game', right? Not least because the concept of 'legend' can find itself stretched. Anfield staged a meeting of Liverpool and Chelsea alumni, all for charidee – and home fans were reacquainted with luminaries such as, erm, Mark González, Albert Riera and Igor Biscan. The Blues, featuring a 58-year-old Dennis Wise, and old mate Jody Morris snapping alongside him, as Jimmy Floyd-Hasselbaink led the line, were beaten by the undimmed striking instincts of string-bean striker, and modern-day b@ntz king Peter Crouch. Meanwhile, Robbie Keane missed boyhood club Liverpool's party to play instead for other boyhood club Spurs against Milan, alongside Teddy Sheringham, also 58. Ledley King's creaky knees got a run-out against a Milan club featuring Cafu, a mere 54, and Andrea Pirlo, hair still resplendent. Robbie, once of Italian boyhood club Inter, got a hat-trick past Dida, and, yes, performed that forward-roll celebration he made his own at his many boyhood clubs. Tottenham ran out 6-2 winners, Pirlo notching one of his trademark free-kicks, an absolute beauty. Thomas Tuchel has a World Cup to win – and he won't be rotating his brave England boys to please those pesky club managers. Expect a feisty atmosphere if you're heading along to see FC United v Stockton this weekend, because Manchester United fans will join the non-league club's supporters in a joint protest against the Glazers, 20 years since FC United were founded. Todd Boehly has revealed that Chelsea's owners are likely to split if they disagree over plans for a new stadium. In more great news for Blues fans, the club will have to pay Manchester United £5m if they decide not to sign Jadon Sancho this summer. Newcastle are showing just how rusty they are when it comes to celebrating success, having at first talked up a bus parade of the Milk Cup trophy only to then suggest this may be scaled down to a mood-killing alcohol-free event at Town Moor. Thiago Motta is an up and coming manager no more after being sacked by Juventus and replaced by former Lazio boss Igor Tudor. Manchester United forward Geyse, who has spoken of her unhappiness at the WSL club for various reasons, has joined Gotham FC on loan. A tip of the hat to Real Madrid, who defeated Barcelona in a women's clásico for the first time ever – after 18 defeats. And Sean Dyche feels he's been cruelly overlooked for a top job at a European giant. Kind of. '[Burnley] went down [in my final] season on 33 points, which people forget,' he blabbed on talkSPORT. 'But we'll go onto Vincent Kompany who got 24 points – I think – after spending £127m and ended up getting the Bayern job. I don't know how that works, but I wish I was doing it! I wish I had left the club £127m in debt and got the Bayern job, but anyway that's an interesting twist of life.' Join Max Rushden and the Football Weekly pod squad as they chew over Thomas Tuchel's winning start as England manager, Nations League thrills and much, much more. Weekend talking points from the WSL. Right here! Borussia Dortmund chief suit Hans-Joachim Watzke talks to Matt Ford about his two decades at the club, including near-bankruptcy, selling players and the Klopp years. The latest key to high performance? Sleep! Will Unwin investigates. It's not going well for Mauricio Pochettino and Team USA USA USA after back-to-back defeats in the Concacaf Nations League finals. Leander Schaerlaeckens reflects on a loss of momentum ahead of the 2026 World Cup on home soil. And know your Premier League top scorers? Take our quiz about Golden Boot winners through the seasons. Here's Diego Maradona at a trendy Buenos Aires nightclub in 1983 with his brother (to his left) and friends. Nice knitwear. It's a photo from a broader picture essay by José Luis Ledesma, who was Maradona's personal snapper back in the day.
