Super Bowl primer: Top 10 storylines you’ll grow sick of as Chiefs, 49ers head to Miami | Opinion
Parochially you know Miami wanted Ryan Tannehill for the Super Bowl it is hosting. The idea of the longtime Dolphins quarterback playing for an NFL championship in his former stadium, under the nose of the team that discarded him, would have been rather surreal and delicious.
But get over it, already. Moving on. The matchup we got for Super Bowl 54, minted Sunday night, will have no problem filling two weeks of mountainous buildup. So: Ready, set ... hype! Here’s your primer. Our Top 10 storylines you’ll be sick of way before the Feb. 2 game at Hard Rock Stadium:
1. The Drought Bowl: The Kansas City Chiefs last won a Super Bowl in the 1969 season — think Hank Stram, Len Dawson, Richard Nixon and the moon landing. The San Francisco 49ers last won in 1994 — think George Seifert, Steve Young and O.J. Simpson in a white Ford Bronco.
That’s a half century and quarter century ago. Of the 20 franchises that have won an SB, only the Jets (by one year) have waited longer to win again than the Chiefs. Their wait is even four years droughtier than the Dolphins, whose starved fans have waited since 1973. (A Niners’ win would tie the Patriots and Steelers with six Super Bowl titles).
The Niners’ and Chiefs’ combined 75-year gap between wins is the longest of any Super Bowl matchup between clubs that have before. The previous record combined drought was 57 years by the Colts and Bears in the 2006-season game.
2. Quarterbacks: Patrick Mahomes vs. Jimmy Garoppolo: Yeah, there was a visceral desire for Tannehill to make it to Miami and maybe to get Aaron Rodgers gunning for his second career ring. But Kansas City’s Mahomes vs. San Fran’s Garoppolo fills a marquee pretty good.
Mahomes’ arrival has been the most instantly dynamic the NFL has seen of a quarterback since Miami’s Dan Marino in 1983-84. But can the chief Chief now accomplish what Marino never could?
Unlike K.C., the Niners don’t live and die with their QB’s arm, but primarily with running and defense. Heck, Garoppolo needed throw only eight passes (Holy Bob Griese!) in Sunday’s elimination of Green Bay. Still, as Tom Brady fades fast, you know Bill Belichick is wishing his Patriots had never traded Jimmy G. in midseason 2017.
3. Head coaches: Andy Reid vs. Kyle Shanahan: We love a contrast, and get one in K.C.’s Reid vs. San Fran’s Shanahan.
Reid, 61, is the seventh-winningest coach of all time with 207 in 21 seasons, the past seven in Kansas City. But what he mostly is is the man who has coached the most playoff games (28) without ever winning a Super Bowl. Can he finally get off the schneid? His 15-year gap between Super Bowls is the second-longest by a coach, to Dick Vermeil’s 19 years.
Reid has a compelling backstory, too. His oldest sign died of an accidental heroin overdose in 2012. Another son, Britt, overcame his own addiction to painkillers and is now the Chiefs’ linebackers coach.
Shanahan, 40, in his third season on the Bay, is the son of two-time Super Bowl champion head coach Mike Shanahan (Broncos, 1997-98). They now become the first father and son to be head coaches in a Super Bowl.
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4. The Bosa Connection: Nick Bosa, the 49ers’ standout rookie defensive end/edge rusher (and younger bro of the Chargers’ Joey) is Fort Lauderdale-born and played high school ball at St. Thomas Aquinas, a 10-minute drive from Dolphins’ camp in Davie.
Both Bosas are the sons of John Bosa, who was the Dolphins’ first-round round draft pick in 1987. The Bosas are the second NFL family to have three members drafted in the first round. The first? The Mannings (Archie, Peyton and Eli).
5. Damien Williams and The Ex’s: Well, we didn’t get the ex-Dolphin we wanted back in Miami (Tannehill), but we got a pretty good one in the running back who Miami let go after four years following the 2017 season and who is now Kansas City’s featured back.
Williams leads the Chiefs in rushing (not counting Mahomes) and has three touchdowns in these playoffs — including they key one Sunday that gave K.C. the cushion of a 28-17 lead over Tennessee.
Other ex-Fins in the Super Bowl: Sam Madison is K.C. secondary coach; Niners’ star running back Raheem Mostert played one game for Miami in 2015; Chiefs backup QBs are Matt Moore and Chad Henne; K.C. special teamer Jordan Lucas was a Fin in 2016-17; and Niners’ nose tackle Earl Mitchell played for Miami in 2014-16.
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6. Is it finally Zach’s time?: Jimmy Johnson finally made it into the Pro Football Hall of Fame this month. But will it finally be time for the man he drafted in Miami, linebacker and first-time finalist Zach Thomas?
Former Hurricanes Edgerrin James and Reggie White and Fort Lauderdale-born Isaac Bruce also are among finalists. Inductees will be announbced during the NFL Honors awards show the night before the Super Bowl.
7. Miami breaks the record as host: This is our 11th time hosting an SB, one better than New Orleans’ 10.
Visitors advisory: Hard Rock Stadium is located in the suburb of Miami Gardens, which has around 115,000 residents and is the largest Florida city with a majority African-American populace.
Please do not refer to the Super Bowl as being in South Beach, or the locals will look at you funny. South Beach is a touristy neighborhood or area, not as city. It is OK to say the game is in Miami or in South Florida, even though the mayor of Miami Gardens may be disappointed in you.
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8. Katie Sowers: Who? You’ll find out soon enough. Sowers is in her second season as an offensive assistant coach with the 49ers.
That makes her the only female who is a fulltime coach on an NFL staff -- and the first woman to coach in a Super Bowl. That also makes her a go-to novelty story with “beyond football” gravitas and societal import as thousands of media types descend upon Miami in search of offbeat stories they thought were offbeat until finding out everybody else is doing the same story.
9. The Special K’s: George Kittle of the Niners and Travis Kelce of the Chiefs are the two best tight ends end in the NFL, offensive playmakers likely to be a force in the big game.
They are what Rob Gronkowski was until Gronk retired from football to become a fulltime partyer.
10. Canes are shut out: It isn’t usual, but, somehow fitting of The U’s current woes, no former Miami Hurricanes will be playing in their backyard Super Bowl. Nobody from FIU, either. But one South Florida college will be repped: Niners linebacker and special teamer Azeez Al-Shaair played for FAU. (Go Owls!)
Almost forgot. The big event itself! What, you thought I meant Chiefs vs. 49ers? Yeah that should be pretty good, too, I guess.
But I meant J-Lo vs. Shakira at halftime.
This story was originally published January 20, 2020 at 2:10 PM.
