The San Francisco 49ers and Kansas City Chiefs will be chasing history of different sorts in Super Bowl LVIII on Feb. 11 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.
With five Super Bowl championships to their credit already, the 49ers have an opportunity to match the NFL-record six shared by the Pittsburgh Steelers and New England Patriots.
The Chiefs, meanwhile, are looking to become the ninth team—and the first since New England after the 2004 campaign—to win Super Bowls in back-to-back seasons. Kansas City could also become the fifth team to claim three Super Bowl championships in a span of five years.
The Chiefs are appearing in their fourth Super Bowl in five years, having begun their run with a 31–20 victory over San Francisco on Feb. 2, 2020, at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami.
Kansas City fell to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 31–9, the following season at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, but last year defeated the Philadelphia Eagles, 38–35, at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona.
Only Pittsburgh, which won the Super Bowl four times in a span of six seasons in the 1970s, the Dallas Cowboys in the 1990s, and the Patriots have won as many as three Super Bowls in five years. New England, led by quarterback Tom Brady, turned the trick twice, after the 2001, ’03, and ’04 seasons, and then again following the 2014, ’16, and ’18 campaigns.
Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, in his sixth season as an NFL starter, is well aware of the magnitude of what he and Kansas City are accomplishing.
“You want to get to the Super Bowl. That’s your ultimate goal,” Mahomes said Feb. 5 during the opening night of media availability in Las Vegas. “To be in my fourth one, it truly is surreal, and I just try to appreciate it every single time. You don’t know if this will be your last, and I’ve been blessed to be in a lot, with a great organization and a lot of great players around me. I just try to maximize those opportunities.”
Despite a storied past that includes back-to-back Super Bowl championships after the 1988 and ’89 seasons, the 49ers’ more recent history has been pockmarked with big-game failures. San Francisco has dropped each of its past two Super Bowl appearances, including a 34–31 loss to the Baltimore Ravens at the Superdome in New Orleans to conclude the 2012 season.
The 49ers also came up a step shy of the Super Bowl each of the past two seasons, falling in NFC Championship Games to the Los Angeles Rams and Philadelphia Eagles, respectively.
Much has been made of the fact that 49ers Coach Kyle Shanahan not only saw 10-point, fourth-quarter advantages get away in that title game against the Rams and in the previous Super Bowl appearance against the Chiefs, but also was the Atlanta Falcons’ offensive coordinator when they blew a 28–3 lead in a 34–28 Super Bowl loss to the Patriots after the 2016 season.
“Narrative, good or bad, is just a narrative,” Mr. Shanahan said during a Feb. 8 Super Bowl media session. “I just don’t want regrets. I just want to do everything that makes sense to myself, that makes sense for our team. No matter how hard something is or how good something is, you always keep perspective of what it really is. If you want your perspective to be someone else’s narrative, good luck being happy in life.”
Prediction: Kansas City 24, San Francisco 20
A streak of six consecutive correct predictions from California Insider over the past two playoff rounds and an 8–4 overall post-season record are in the hands of Mahomes and the Chiefs.While the 49ers boast an incredible array of offensive talent led by running back Christian McCaffrey, tight end George Kittle, and wide receivers Deebo Samuel and Brandon Aiyuk, it’s hard to imagine San Francisco quarterback Brock Purdy outdueling Mahomes when superstars Josh Allen of the Buffalo Bills and Baltimore’s Lamar Jackson couldn’t do it.
A Kansas City defense that has been superb during the playoffs figures to also make a difference.
