Kyle Shanahan doesn’t go looking for Super Bowl heartbreak-but he doesn’t run from it either.
The 49ers head coach opened up during NBC’s Super Bowl LX pregame show about how he processes the toughest moments of his career. When linebacker Fred Warner asked when he finally sits down to rewatch the film from San Francisco’s Super Bowl losses, Shanahan admitted he waits until the very last minute.
“I put it away completely because it didn’t go well, and it is so personal,” Shanahan told Warner. “But I always watch it the day before you guys get back.
I put it off as long as I can, but the day before you guys enter the building, I gotta be on top of it. I gotta know what happened and I gotta know how to address you guys and I gotta know how to prepare going forward.”
That’s classic Shanahan-intensely competitive, relentlessly prepared, and emotionally invested in every detail. The pain of a Super Bowl loss doesn’t just fade with time.
It lingers. And for a coach like Shanahan, who’s wired to learn from every snap, eventually, the tape has to roll.
San Francisco’s last two trips to the big game have both ended in heartbreak at the hands of the Kansas City Chiefs, including the most recent overtime loss in Super Bowl LVIII. It’s the kind of defeat that stays with a team. And for a head coach, it cuts especially deep.
“This is what we all dream about growing up, this is what we all work for,” Shanahan said. “It starts way early in the offseason. You go through this whole grind to get here, and you know it’s a little hard for me-you guys making me bring up some dark Super Bowl memories.”
It’s a raw, honest moment from a coach who’s been through the fire more than once. Shanahan has been part of nine Super Bowls in some capacity-six alongside his father, legendary coach Mike Shanahan, and three of his own as a coach. And while the losses have piled up, so has the perspective.
“I went to six of them with my dad, and I went to three of my own,” Shanahan said. “I just look at it as he got blown out in his first three, and then he won his next three-and I’ve gotten my three losses out of the way… now we’ve got three wins in front of us.”
It’s a mindset rooted in resilience. Shanahan isn’t brushing off the pain-he’s using it.
He’s seen firsthand how long the road can be, how much it takes to climb back, and how quickly it can all slip away. But he’s also seen that success can come after the setbacks.
For a coach who’s still chasing his first Super Bowl win, the scars are real-but so is the belief that the best is yet to come.