San Francisco 49ers are being backed to overcome the mental hurdle of two recent Super Bowl losses to finally land the NFL’s biggest prize as the new season kicks-off this weekend.
Jesse Sapolu, who as a centre snapped the ball to Joe Montana and Steve Young on four of the 49ers Super Bowl-winning teams of the 80s and 90s, believes Kyle Shanahan’s current crop are capable of avenging last year’s heartbreaking overtime defeat to the Kansas City Chiefs in the big game.
Speaking at an event in Leeds this summer to promote flag football in Yorkshire – a joint initiative between the NFL Foundation UK, the Leeds United Foundation and the San Francisco 49ers – Sapolu admitted: “It’s tough to get over. I was fortunate not to have to go through it in my career, but from an athlete’s standpoint I have great admiration for the young men who play for the 49ers because I know it’s not easy to consistently get to the semi-finals and then into the final.
“I’m praying for them to close the deal.
“We’ve lost three close ones now (once against Baltimore 11 years ago and twice against the Chiefs), and if the game is close that kind of thinking creeps back up. They just have to ignore that.
“It can become a mental block if you let it be that.”
Head coach Kyle Shanahan of the San Francisco 49ers after their defeat to the Chiefs in Super Bowl 58 (Picture: Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)
But Sapolu believes this squad is strong enough in the top two inches to get over the hump.
“I think we have a group of players who have got to the semi-finals four of the last six years, so the consistency is there, the belief system is there, so you’ve just got to keep taking the shots,” Sapolu said of a team that kicks-off their season at home to Aaron Rodgers and the New York Jets on Monday Night Football.
“I won four Super Bowls, but I lost four NFC Championship games – guess which games I remember now that I’m retired?
“I’m proud of my Super Bowls, but I already have them – the ones I think about are the ones that got away.”