Overtime in Vegas: The Cruelest Sequel

Déjà vu, but the French kind — the kind that makes you question whether free will exists or if some franchises are simply cursed.

49ersNFLSuper BowlKansas City ChiefsPatrick MahomesBrock PurdyLas Vegas

Also in: American Zeitgeist

Super Bowl LVIII went to overtime in Las Vegas, and if you were a 49ers fan, you already knew how this ended. You knew because it ended this way four years ago against the same team, the same quarterback, with the same sickening momentum shift in the fourth quarter. Brock Purdy — the last pick in the 2022 draft, Mr. Irrelevant turned franchise savior — played well enough to win. The defense played well enough to win. Kyle Shanahan's play-calling was aggressive, creative, and ultimately not enough, because on the other sideline Patrick Mahomes exists and he has apparently decided that 49ers fans specifically do not get to be happy. Kansas City won 25-22 in overtime. San Francisco became the first team in NFL history to lose Super Bowls to the same opponent twice in five years, a record nobody wanted. The ring count stayed at five. The Montana-Young era receded further into memory. And the Faithful were left with the most 49ers feeling imaginable: we were right there, and right there wasn't enough.