The San Francisco 49ers will take on the Chiefs in Super Bowl 54 but when was their last appearance and what is their history in the Big Game?
Kyle Shanahan’s San Francisco 49ers are preparing to take on the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LIV on Sunday, Feb. 2, 2020 at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami. With a healthy Jimmy Garoppolo and additions like Nick Bosa and Dee Ford, the 49ers rebounded from an injury-riddled 2018 season that saw them go just 4-12 overall to now be playing for the Lombardi Trophy.
Because of their recent struggles, many might not remember that the 49ers were actually in the Super Bowl not that long ago. In fact, it was just seven years ago that Jim Harbaugh‘s Niners played in Super Bowl XLVII against the Baltimore Ravens to crown the champion of the 2012 season on Sunday, Feb. 3, 2013.
In a game featuring both Harbaughs, a power outage in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome and some furious action, Colin Kaepernick and the San Francisco 49ers came up short in that matchup, falling to the Ravens by a score of 34-31.
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However, the 49ers franchise history in the Super Bowl is quite illustrious. In fact, the loss seven years ago to the Ravens was actually San Francisco’s first taste of defeat when playing in the Big Game. Previously, with Joe Montana, Jerry Rice and Steve Young leading the way, the Niners were 5-0 in the Super Bowl prior to that loss.
San Francisco won their first Lombardi Trophy by defeating the Bengals, 26-21, in Super Bowl XVI. Three years later, they thrashed the Dolphins with a 38-16 win in Super Bowl XIX. The 49ers then waited another four years for another win over Cincinnati, 20-16, in Super Bowl XXIII.
The 49ers repeated as champions the following season, registering the largest margin of victory in the history of the Big Game with a 55-10 win over the Broncos in Super Bowl XXIV. Five years later on Jan. 29, 1995 in Miami, coincidentally, San Francisco won their last Lombardi Trophy with a 49-26 rout of the Chargers.
Having not won a Super Bowl in 15 years and with only one loss in the Big Game in franchise history, the San Francisco 49ers have to be motivated to bring another title back to the Bay Area. We’ll see if they can move to 6-1 historically in the Super Bowl when they take on the Chiefs.