The Kansas City Chiefs will play the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl LIV in Miami in two weeks, and the choice for New Orleans Saints fans is clear: root for Andy Reid, Patrick Mahomes, and Kansas City.
Sure, the Saints-49ers rivalry is a big part of this. Drew Brees and the Saints dropped 46 points on San Francisco during the regular season, but it wasn’t enough to win — that loss played a huge part in playoff standings later on down the road, eventually gifting the 49ers a first-round bye and dooming the Saints to a first-round exit.
But the bad blood runs deeper. The 2011 Saints team was one of the best in franchise history (possibly the best), but its season ended on a sunny afternoon in San Francisco during the playoffs. To go back even further, reaching into past decades, the Saints were terrorized by the 49ers dynasty as division rivals in the old NFC West.
So, sure, it would be great if the Saints were playing in this year’s Super Bowl instead of these two squads. But they aren’t, and it’s time fans make their peace with that. Enjoy the dozen-or-so Saints players cutting up at the Pro Bowl and become Chiefs fans for a week or two.
If we’re lucky, 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan will get a 28-3 lead over the Chiefs and inevitably have it blow up in his face, just as it did when his Atlanta Falcons lost Super Bowl LI. Considering Mahomes has done a lot of playing from behind this postseason (while Shanahan and the 49ers have done plenty of playing-with-a-lead), that scenario isn’t as far-fetched as it feels like. Wouldn’t that be something?
