LAS VEGAS — Let’s be clear up front: Kyle Shanahan is a hell of a football coach.
He is innovative and creative, his players play for him, he helped build a culture of excellence in San Francisco, and along with his father, Mike, he has strong qualifications as a head coach, and his resume includes He has multiple Super Bowl titles.
but …
But these Super Bowl losses are becoming, well, a big deal. thing For Shanahan.
For the third time in his coaching career and second as a head coach, Shanahan lost the Super Bowl on Sunday night after the Chiefs scored 25 points and the 49ers scored 22 points in overtime at Allegiant Stadium. I fell into a position.
Steve Young, the last quarterback to lead the 49ers to a Super Bowl championship in 1994, said in a phone call with The Post a few days before Super Bowl V that he wonders how the legacy of players and coaches will depend on the outcome of this game. He talked about how it would become stronger. game.
Fair or not, Shanahan’s accomplishments received as much attention as the players and coaches on both teams because of the issues he had in the game leading up to Sunday.
No one needed this more than Shanahan.
Now, Shanahan’s reputation as a big game coach has taken another heartbreaking blow.
The Super Bowl defines head coaches and quarterbacks more than anyone else.If you are a Super Bowl winning head coach or quarterback, you created human being.
Shanahan is young at 44 years old, but he doesn’t plan on going anywhere. He’s going to have more cracks in this Super Bowl.
Check out the Post’s latest coverage of the 2024 Super Bowl
But until he broke through, the Falcons lost a 28-3 fourth-quarter lead to Tom Brady and the Patriots in the Super Bowl seven years ago, when he was the offensive coordinator and was supposed to waste time. I ended up having too much fun with the pass. It’s going to be an uncomfortable topic in the run game.
The same goes for losing a 20-10 lead in the fourth quarter to the Chiefs in a 31-20 Super Bowl loss as head coach of the 49ers four years ago.
Until Shanahan wins a Super Bowl, these Super Bowl failures will carry even more weight.
It’s no different than a professional golfer who wins many tournaments but never wins a major championship. Just as NFL head coaches and quarterbacks are judged by the number of Super Bowls they win, top golfers are judged by the number of majors they win.
Unlike his past two Super Bowl losses, Shanahan didn’t lose this game due to questionable decisions or tactics. In fact, he went for a fourth-and-3 from the Kansas City 15 in the fourth quarter, which led to a TD and a 16-13 lead in the series.
Even that wasn’t enough.
When asked after the game why things like this keep happening in the Super Bowl, Shanahan didn’t lash out or get angry, instead calmly answering the difficult question.
“This is the second time [Super Bowl] “You’re in the game as a head coach, and when you play against guys like Tom Brady and Pat Mahomes, you’re never satisfied with being in the lead,” he said. “Two of the greatest players to ever play this game. Those guys will always be up there.
“We’re all hurting,” Shanahan continued. “There aren’t many words to express it. By no means, everything was perfect. But we put ourselves out there. I’m proud of the team.”
“I’ve never thought about the word ‘legacy,'” Shanahan said in the week before the game, adding, “Legacy makes me think of my dad. That doesn’t really sit well with me.”
But the problem is that heritage subjects don’t get to choose their own stories. It was done for them by the outside world.
Chiefs manager Andy Reid called Shanahan a “great coach” before the game, adding, “I really like the way he does it.”
Sunday was a true judgment day for Shanahan, and everything went wrong for him.
Also.
Shanahan, who clearly and desperately wanted to win this Super Bowl for his players, said he went into this game with one specific goal in mind, other than winning.
“I just don’t want to have any regrets,” he said. “I want to do everything that is meaningful to myself and that is meaningful to the team. No matter how difficult something is, no matter how good something is, you always know that it is actually If you want your perspective to be someone else’s story, try to be happy in life. Or even successful.”
Asked after the game if he had any regrets, Shanahan said, “What I can’t bear is looking at myself and doing things I didn’t try to do or things I didn’t do.” I’m proud of what we did as a staff and as players. We did everything we planned to do. We just didn’t get it done.”
