Super Bowl against the New England Patriots<\/a> (17-3) at Levi\u2019s Stadium.<\/p>\nThe 49ers last won a championship following the 1994 season, and they\u2019ve lost three times since. Two of those came with Warner on the field and Shanahan on the sidelines \u2014 Super Bowl 54 and Super Bowl 58. Both were against the Kansas City Chiefs in Miami (31-19) and Las Vegas (25-22 in overtime) in which the 49ers had 10-point leads.<\/p>\n
Shanahan was also the offensive coordinator for Atlanta in Super Bowl 51, when the Falcons blew a 28-3 lead and fell 34-28 in overtime. Shanahan also went to six Super Bowls with his father, Mike Shanahan, who was an assistant coach with Denver, a 49ers offensive coordinator and then head coach of the Broncos. He talked about it while sitting alongside Warner.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou guys are making me bring up some dark Super Bowl memories,\u201d Shanahan said. \u2018I\u2019ve been able to go to nine of these. I went to six of them with my dad and three on my own. I look at it as he got blown out in his first three and then he won his next three. And I\u2019ve got my three losses out of the way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Warner was in on several quick hits, including two from the Seahawks\u2019 locker room, where his 49ers locker was nearby.<\/p>\n
\u201cC\u2019mon, this is torture for me,\u201d Warner joked. He recalled his first Super Bowl against Kansas City and a big first-half play that had him thinking of hoisting the Lombardi Trophy.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a moment I can vividly remember, a young Fred Warner making the biggest play in the biggest moment, an interception in the Super Bowl against Patrick Mahomes,\u201d Warner said. \u201cI was so jacked up, thinking, `If I get a few more tackles I might be the Super Bowl MVP.\u2019 Boy, it was just so naive of me, because of course, we know where that went, and the lore of Patrick Mahomes began.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shanahan was also self-deprecating when it came to lending his expertise on a Seahawks defense that gave up only 32 points to the 49ers in three games and nine in the last two meetings.<\/p>\n
\u201cExpert opinion? I haven\u2019t scored a touchdown in the last two times we played them, so I don\u2019t know how good that is,\u201d Shanahan said. \u201cBut it\u2019s a grind versus these guys. You look at film, they stay (with two safeties deep) all day. It\u2019s a huge challenge. You can\u2019t stay in this defense very long and stop the run, but they do. And when you go deep, Julian Love is always there. He\u2019s the smartest safety I\u2019ve seen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shanahan and Warner were both eager to see how Sam Darnold fared on the biggest stage. Both warned against Darnold trying to do too much, which could lead to three-and-outs and turnovers.<\/p>\n
On their final hit, Shanahan picked Seattle to win 23-17 and Warner forecast a Patriots win at 28-24.<\/p>\n
Some other pregame notes from the 49ers\u2019 duo and pertaining to the Bay Area:<\/p>\n
\u2014 Warner thought power back Rhomondre Stevenson (630 yards on 130 carries, seven touchdowns) could have a bigger impact than leading rusher TreVeyon Henderson (911 yards on 180 carries, nine touchdowns).<\/p>\n
\u201cI actually played him on this field a year ago and I could feel the force when I was trying to tackle this guy,\u201d Warner said. \u201cIt was almost like he had a heavy head, the way he could fall forward for an extra one or two yards . . . , TreVeyon can hit the home-run ball, but I think what\u2019s important today is to take the singles and doubles with Rhamondre.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"MIAMI](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/BNG-L-SB49ERS-0203-374.jpg\")
Fred Warner (54) intercepts a Patrick Mahomes pass in Super Bowl 54 in Miami.\u00a0Nhat V. Meyer\/Bay Area News Group<\/p>\n
\u2014 While a film clip was playing of Seattle wide receiver Jaxson Smith-Njigba getting past 49ers corner Renardo Green deep, Warner said, \u201cEverybody talks about how smooth JSN is, but it\u2019s a deceptive speed that you feel when you\u2019re playing against him. You think he\u2019s running the out route, but nope, he\u2019s running the go-ball. Of course they\u2019re trying to show me up on my Niners right here.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2014\u00a0 Warner said he was overly excited in his first Super Bowl and trying to calm teammates the second time around. Shanahan said it\u2019s common among first-timers.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve seen guys after the first play come out and need oxygen tanks,\u201d Shanahan said. \u201cEverything\u2019s about breathing, relaxing, and trying to keep that pulse down so when you get to the game, you\u2019re ready to go.\u201d<\/p>\n
The game itself, Shanahan said, is almost a relief after the week-long Super Bowl extravaganza.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo me, this is the first time after the NFC Championship Game, you feel normal,\u201d Shanahan said. \u201cYou go through this whole dog and pony show, you\u2019re doing all this traveling, all your schedules are off a little bit. Now you\u2019re kind of in your element, you\u2019re going over openers, all the situations, and you\u2019re doing what you\u2019ve done your whole life.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2014 Shanahan\u2019s key to the game is the same one he preached so often as coach of the 49ers. Run the ball as often as possible.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t get (explosive plays) unless you run the ball, unlock them, bring them up,\u201d Shanahan said. \u201cYou lean on them, get those 40 runs in and that was how we were able to beat them in Week 1. Weren\u2019t able to do that the last two times. You saw the result.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2014 One pregame highlight was a feature on former Laney College coach and athletic director John Beam, who was shot and killed<\/a> on Nov. 14 at the school\u2019s offices at age 66. It was narrated by Marshawn Lynch, who didn\u2019t play for Beam but knew him as a competitor at Oakland Tech (Beam coached at Skyline) and is a fixture in the Oakland community.<\/p>\n\u201cWhere others stopped looking for potential, Beam found it everywhere,\u201d Lynch said. \u201cBeam looked at a kid the world had already counted out and said, \u2018Nah, come here, you\u2019ve got more in you than that.\u2019 But tell you, football was never the destination, it was the vehicle. He helped young men become better people, better leaders.\u201d<\/p>\n
Two-time Super Bowl champion Marvel Smith played for Beam at Skyline and was tearing up at the memory of winning his first ring for the Pittsburgh Steelers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe best part of it was that he was there, him and his family were there on the field with the confetti falling, like everything had come full circle, because this is a man I owed everything to,\u201d Smith said. \u201cCoach did so much for me but he never asked for anything.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you can\u2019t beat \u2019em, go on the air and join the party. Coach Kyle Shanahan and linebacker…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":739206,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2080],"tags":[220,7,592,2812,249,6,1161,252,2624,2623,261],"class_list":{"0":"post-739205","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco-49ers","8":"tag-49ers","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-fred-warner","11":"tag-kyle-shanahan","12":"tag-new-england-patriots","13":"tag-nfl","14":"tag-san-francisco","15":"tag-san-francisco-49ers","16":"tag-sanfrancisco","17":"tag-sanfrancisco49ers","18":"tag-seattle-seahawks"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116038045759383453","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/739205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=739205"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/739205\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/739206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=739205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=739205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=739205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}