When the San Francisco 49ers and Kansas City Chiefs line up to play for the Super Bowl LIV title tonight in Miami, know that this is something these two teams are familiar to doing. In different eras.
The 49ers, thanks to names like Coach Bill Walsh, Joe Montana, Jerry Rice, Dwight Clark, Ronnie Lott and Steve Young, won four NFL titles in the 1980s and added another in 1994.
The Chiefs did it in another era, playing in two of the first four Super Bowls. Sunday’s game will mark 50 years and two weeks since Kansas City’s last appearance, when Coach Hank Stram and the Len Dawson-quarterbacked Chiefs beat the Minnesota Vikings 23-7 in Super Bowl IV.
There’s plenty of interesting dichotomy in this game between the two teams. San Francisco is a year removed from an injury-riddled 4-12 2018 season to win the NFC, thanks to an 8-0 start to the season.
Much more consistent, Kansas City posted their second straight 12-4 that was strong at the start (they won their first four games) and end (won the last six) but was shaky in the middle (1-3 in October, lost four of six games).
Both head coaches are familiar with the Super Bowl. San Francisco’s Kyle Shanahan was the offensive coordinator for the 2016 Atlanta Falcons — the guys who let a 28-3 lead midway through the third quarter of Super Bowl LI slip away to the New England Patriots. His father, Mike Shanahan, led the Denver Broncos to a pair of Super Bowl wins in the 1990s.
Kansas City’s Andy Reid has been a fixture in the playoffs and the Super Bowl, starting as an assistant when the Green Bay Packers won the title in the 1996 season. He coached the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowll XXXIX, which they lost to New England, 27-24, and was in four other NFC Championship games with the Eagles. The Chiefs have been in the last two AFC Championship games, giving Reid seven conference title appearances (2-5 record).
So who is going to win the game? The professional “experts” in Vegas have installed the Chiefs as 1.5-point favorites. That’s a razor-thin edge.
That’s an easy question — the team that scores the most points.
So settle in with your Buffalo chicken dip and enjoy the game, Osceola County!
