32 things about 49ers-Chiefs
MIAMI – Super Bowl week has finally arrived ... and so have the 49ers and the Chiefs, each team touching down in South Florida on Sunday. So as the buildup to Super Bowl LIV begins in earnest, here are 32 things you need to know:
1. This will be the 11th Super Bowl played in the Miami area, an NFL record. High temperatures are expected to hover in the mid-to-high 70s all week ... which is exactly why this is the 11th time this game has been played here ... in case I didn’t mention it.
2. Of course, precipitation could always be a factor. Super Bowl XLI in 2007 between the Colts and the Bears was played in a steady rain. Thankfully, Hard Rock Stadium has since been upgraded with a canopy to shield the seating bowl. At present, the forecast for Super Sunday is 72 degrees and sunny. Fingers crossed.
3. Remember, too, Miami also tends to lend itself to distractions – from Jets QB Joe Namath’s famous guarantee in 1969, to Bengals RB Stanley Wilson’s sad drug relapse in 1989, to the Lamborghini
49ers CB Deion Sanders had delivered to himself in 1995, to Falcons S Eugene Robinson’s arrest for solicitation the night before kickoff in 1999. Expect veterans for each club to be preaching focus all week to their younger teammates.
4. Chiefs coach Andy Reid has more regular-season wins (207), playoff wins (14) and postseason appearances (15) than any other coach who has not won an NFL championship. All things being equal, here’s hoping he’s not ultimately linked with Marty Schottenheimer for posterity.
5. Reid’s Eagles succumbed to the Patriots 24-21 in Super Bowl XXXIX 15 years ago – in part due to a fourth-quarter comeback led by QB Donovan McNabb that seemed to lack requisite urgency.
6. However, 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan will also be seeking redemption after he was widely criticized three years ago – he was serving as offensive coordinator of the Falcons at the time – when Atlanta shockingly fumbled a 28-3 third-quarter lead to New England in a loss.
7. Shanahan definitely seems more committed to the clock-sucking power of the run game these days, his 2019 49ers averaging nearly five more carries per game than his high-octane 2016 Falcons, who scored 61 more points in the regular season than these Niners.
8. Expect the death of NBA legend Kobe Bryant, 41, to cast a pall over the Super Bowl festivities, especially early in the week. RIP, No. 8.
9. The last two NFC Super Bowl coaches, Shanahan and the Rams’ Sean McVay, were assistants together on the Redskins’ staff from 2010 to 2013. (Chins up, Packers fans: Matt LaFleur was also on that Washington staff. Give him a year.)
10. Since the beginning of the Super Bowl era (1966 season), San Francisco’s Jimmy Garoppolo has the highest winning percentage among quarterbacks with at least 25 starts, playoffs included, at .821. Kansas City’s Patrick Mahomes is in third place at .771.
11. The 49ers had three players (Raheem Mostert, Matt Breida, Tevin Coleman) rush for at least 500 yards in the regular season. The Chiefs had none.
12. Coleman scored Atlanta’s final TD of Super Bowl LI courtesy of a 6-yard hookup with 2016 league MVP Matt Ryan. The Niners are just hoping Coleman, who dislocated his shoulder in the NFC championship game, will be able to play Sunday.
13. However, San Francisco is pretty obviously in good hands with Mostert, who has never started any of his 52 career NFL games. But the team’s leading rusher in 2019 (772 yards in the regular season) has added 278 in the playoffs, including 220 in the NFC championship game – when he became the first player to rush for at least 200 yards and four touchdowns in a playoff game.
14. Washington’s Timmy Smith set the Super Bowl single-game record with 204 rushing yards 32 years ago against Denver.
15. The last player to a throw a TD pass in the Super Bowl? Eagles QB Nick Foles (to Zach Ertz) in Super Bowl LII. Here’s one bet Mahomes will be the next.
16. Mahomes joins Hall of Famers Dan Marino and Kurt Warner as the only players to win league MVP honors while also reaching the Super Bowl in their first three seasons. Marino lost his only Super Bowl start 35 years ago. Warner was the Super Bowl MVP 20 years ago when the Rams outlasted the Titans and went on to start twice more on Super Sunday.
17. With 17 years to his credit, Chiefs DE Terrell Suggs is the longest-serving player in Super Bowl LIV and one of the few who already has a ring.
18. Born May 6, 1982, Chiefs P Dustin Colquitt is the oldest player in Super Bowl LIV, though Suggs and 49ers K Robbie Gould are also 37.
19. CB Richard Sherman isn’t the only Seahawk-turned-49er seeking his second Super Bowl ring. So is Niners G Mike Person.
20. The Super Bowl record for receiving yards by a tight end in a game is 116, set two years ago by the Patriots’ Rob Gronkowski against Philadelphia. There’s your target, George Kittle and/or Travis Kelce, as this year’s great tight end debate unfolds.
21. LT Joe Staley is the only member of the 49ers who also played on their Super Bowl XLVII team, which lost to the Ravens.
22. 49ers DE Dee Ford will be part of a vaunted defensive line – one that boasts five first-round picks who rarely require assistance from the blitz – that will take aim at Mahomes. Of San Francisco’s 48 regular-season sacks, 41 came from linemen.
23. Of course, Ford should have some extra juice given the Chiefs essentially offloaded him in favor of Frank Clark
this offseason. Ford was infamously penalized for offsides in the 2018 AFC championship game, negating a Kansas City interception that likely would have vaulted them past the Patriots and into Super Bowl LIII last year.
24. Expect the death of NBA legend Kobe Bryant, 41, to cast a pall over the Super Bowl festivities, especially early in the week. RIP, No. 24.
25. Need a dark horse for Super Bowl MVP? Keep an eye on 49ers rookie WR Deebo Samuel, who is nearly as likely to take a reverse or designed run to the house as he is to catch a touchdown pass.
26. Best social media handle among Super Bowl LIV players? How about 49ers FB Kyle Juszczyk ... or @JuiceCheck44.
26a. Honorable mention to Chiefs K Harrison Butker – @buttkicker7 – and WR Tyreek Hill – @cheetah.
27. It’s been 50 years since the Chiefs won their only Super Bowl, beating the Vikings’ Purple People Eaters 23-7 in Tulane Stadium in New Orleans.
28. You will recall then-Kansas City coach Hank Stram famously dialed up “65 Toss Power Trap,” which turned into a 5-yard TD run by Mike Garrett that put the Chiefs up 16-0 before halftime. Of course, Stram’s play call is far more recognizable because he made it while wearing an NFL Films microphone, the first time a coach had been mic’d up.
29. It’s been 25 years since the 49ers won their most recent Super Bowl, a 4926 defeat of the San Diego Chargers ... here in Miami.
30. It was the only time the Niners won a Lombardi Trophy without Joe Montana under center.
31. The MVP of Super Bowl XXIX was Steve Young, who’d already earned a pair of rings while backing up Montana.
32. Will the MVP of Super Bowl LIV be Garoppolo, who’s already earned a pair of rings – the second at Shanahan’s expense – while backing up Tom Brady? Get that monkey off his back ...