Did they shake it off for the win?
The San Francisco 49ers took on the Kansas City Chiefs in a rematch on Sunday, February 11 during Super Bowl LVIII.
The last time the 49ers went to the Super Bowl was in 2020 for the 54th Super Bowl against the Kansas City Chiefs, who defeated them 31-20. Now, four years later, Kyle Shanahan was ready to coach his team back for the greatest redemption of the century.
The build-up of anticipation and hype that had built leading up to this game had split the nation, along with fans across the world, between the two teams. Traditionally, deciding who to root for during the game consisted of rooting for whatever team was representing your conference, whatever team the rest of your family liked, or the very rare occasion of your favorite team actually playing. This year, however, it seemed that the audience was split between Chiefs fans rooting for their team, and the rest of the NFL rooting for the 49ers. This has been caused by a few things. The first reason is many NFL fans have become irritated with seeing Taylor Swift pop up after every play during a Chiefs game.
Another reason is that fans are becoming tired of seeing the Chiefs go to the Super Bowl. This year marks the fourth time that the Kansas City Chiefs have appeared in the Super Bowl in the last five seasons. The annoyance becomes apparent as this makes it feel very repetitive. The Chiefs can’t be blamed for this occurring because all they are doing is playing very well during each season. They also aren’t the first team to do this. The New England Patriots ended up going to the Super Bowl four times in five years from 2015 until 2019. This repetition caused many fans to become irritated with the New England Patriots and began to accuse them of cheating. This is something that is now happening to the Chiefs as many fans are making jokes and memes saying, “The refs are the real MVPs” anytime that the Chiefs win a game. Even though this sounds and is very improper, there is some evidence to prove their suspicions. Every game that the Chiefs play, fans end up pointing out many terrible calls by the referees that make it appear that the refs are trying to ensure a Chiefs victory. However, this is something that occurs during every game in the NFL for every team.
The final reason many people wanted to see the 49ers win the Super Bowl is because of their quarterback. Brock Purdy had been picked by the 49ers during the 2022 draft, but he wasn’t the first choice. Purdy ended up being the 262nd pick of the draft, making him the last player chosen by any team. This caused him to gain the nickname, “Mr. Irrelevant”. This start alone would perfectly describe the beginning to any player that would be forgotten with time, but irony and fate seemed to have other plans for Purdy. During Week 14 of the 2022 season, Brock Purdy started for the first time against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who were being led by Tom Brady, and defeated them 35-7. Ever since then, Purdy has led the 49ers as the starting quarterback to many victories over their opponents and was the light of hope for many NFL fans wishing for a 49ers victory.
Though many fans were hoping for the 49er’s victory, the reality of who they were facing caused their victory prediction to be different from their dreams. From a story poll taken on the Livewire Instagram page, 55% of the students who participated believed that the Kansas City Chiefs would add another ring to their ever-growing collection. That, plus the fact that the Chiefs’ most recent victory over the Baltimore Ravens, a team that defeated the 49ers 34-31 during the 2013 Super Bowl and 33-19 during the regular season this year, made the odds against the 49ers appear very frightening.
Even though many fans were rooting for their victory, the 49ers unfortunately weren’t able to pull it together for the win. The team did a great job during the game, spending the majority of the time ahead of the Chiefs, but in the end they lost in the last moments of overtime. Even with the loss, many fans are still proud of the team for doing as great as they had. Now the next thing for the team to do is take their knowledge and drive from last week’s game, and apply them two-fold next year.
