SAN FRANCISCO — Four years ago, the game clock was slowly bleeding its way toward double zeroes and George Kittle stood on the sideline, helpless as he watched his dream of being a Super Bowl champion disappear along with those numbers on the clock.
Kittle, one of the best tight ends in the NFL, was on the wrong side of the 31-20 Chiefs win over his 49ers in Super Bowl LIV and he was talking to himself as he stood on the sideline wallowing in his own disappointment.
Sometimes, stress will do that to us, turn us inward to having a conversation with ourselves.
Sideline microphones picked up Kittle’s conversation, which went viral.
“I will be back here,” Kittle said, spitting out the words like poison-tipped darts. “I will be back here, and I will be back with a motherf—ing vengeance. You will not get the best of me. No sir.”
Well sirs, Kittle backed up those vows.
On Sunday evening at Levi’s Stadium, Kittle was in a much more chipper mood as he stood on the sideline with the clock winding down, making the 49ers’ wild 34-31 comeback victory over the Lions in the NFC Championship game official.
Kittle had just recovered the Lions’ desperation onsides kick attempt to seal the game and send the 49ers to the Super Bowl again to play the Chiefs.
What a sweet story this may turn out to be for the 49ers Faithful if their team can pull this off — win its record-tying sixth Super Bowl but first since the 1994 season, and exact revenge on the Chiefs along the way.
Revenge, however, wasn’t on the 49ers’ minds Sunday. Desperation, mixed in with a pinch of panic, was in play as the Lions manhandled the 49ers in the first half, taking a 24-7 lead into the locker room and leaving the 49ers dazed and confused.
After the game, revenge wasn’t even on the mind of 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan, who’s endured a pretty good dose of Super Bowl heartbreak himself.
(Think 28-3 Atlanta over the Patriots before Tom Brady woke up his teammates and crushed the Falcons’ will. Shanahan was the Falcons offensive coordinator and was criticized for his play calling being a part of allowing New England to come back.)
“I haven’t had a lot of time to think about that,’’ Shanahan said Sunday night, about an hour after his team’s win, when asked about getting to face the Chiefs again in a Super Bowl.
Shanahan, after all, had been in survival mode for the better part of the previous three hours and couldn’t have given a damn if his team were playing the ’85 Chicago Bears or the Bad News Bears.
“I didn’t watch any of their game,’’ Shanahan said, referring to the Chiefs win over the Ravens in the AFC Championship game. “I wasn’t sure who won until someone told me right before we went out [to the field].’’
Shanahan, though, knows what he’s up against with the Chiefs, but he also knows he has a better, more seasoned team this time. He has a better, more consistent, more dependable quarterback in Brock Purdy than he had in Jimmy Garoppolo. He has Christian McCaffrey, the most dynamic and versatile running back in the sport. And he has a better defense.
But, of course, the Chiefs still have Patrick Mahomes, who’s turned AFC Championship and Super Bowl weeks into his personal vacation timeshare since he entered the league. And, former Giants defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo has that Kansas City defense playing even better than head coach and offensive genius Andy Reid has his offense playing, which is a scary prospect.
“We already have a pretty good idea of how it’s going to look like,’’ Shanahan said. “They’re a hell of a team. Got a hell of a coach, hell of a quarterback, hell of a defense. They’ve been doing it for a while. Since we met them in ’19, it seems like they’ve been there every year since. We have been trying really hard to get back to this moment.’’
The 49ers got back to the NFC Championship twice since that Super Bowl loss to Kansas City after the 2019 season and lost both times, including last season when they lost both of their quarterbacks to injury in the title game against Philadelphia.
They vow this time will be different. They hope it will. Believe it will.
“Losing the NFC Championship game two more times is not very fun,’’ Kittle said. “That stings.’’
Kittle then spoke of all the questions players ask themselves after such a devastating loss. Questions Lions head coach Dan Campbell and his players are asking themselves right now after losing in such cruel fashion.
“You just say, ‘What am I going to do differently this year?’ ’’ Kittle said. “You say, ‘How am I going to work harder? What’s my mindset going to be?’ There’s going to be a lot of questions.’’
Not now. Now it’s simply the Chiefs. Get through the Chiefs and there will be no more players like Kittle muttering to himself on the sideline awash in disappointment.