This 49ers Team Can Rewrite Kyle Shanahan’s Playoff Legacy

Life is always more complex than we make it out to be. And while current 49ers coach and then Falcons OC Kyle Shanahan was not (even close to) the sole reason Atlanta surrendered a 25-point lead to the Patriots in Super Bowl LI, and was not (even close to) the sole reason why San Francisco surrendered a 10-point lead to the Chiefs in Super Bowl LIV, those are the kinds of moments that tend to stick to a person.

You become the guy who gets to the game and almost wins it before something goes wrong. Just like Andy Reid was the guy who couldn’t manage the clock, and Pete Carroll was the guy who couldn’t hack it in the NFL and Tom Coughlin was the guy who was too cantankerous to have any meaningful success. There’s only one way to stop being that guy, which is why coaches wake up at absurd hours and live wildly unhealthy lifestyles locked away in NFL facilities for hours at a time.

While Shanahan’s system is built on smart principles, the whole thing is also built to take any semblance of a lead and hold onto it like Kane during a chokeslam.

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