Why the Coin Toss Cost the 49ers the Super Bowl
Kyle Shanahan hasn't taken nearly enough heat for costing the 49ers the Super Bowl because he didn't know the rules for overtime in the playoffs.
That's because my dad, Lowell Cohn, is retired. He covered the 49ers from 1979 to 2016 and knows what a championship team looks like.
Here's what my dad said about the 49ers' latest Super Bowl collapse.
"What I find very interesting is that the decisive moment in the game did not come on a football play. It happened on a thought play, on a decision. When you watch the video, it's very clear that Kyle Shanahan says he wants the ball first. And you hear Patrick Mahomes talking to Andy Reid asking which direction do they want to kick. Meaning if they win the toss, they'd defer. That's clear. Then we go down to the coin toss. They flip the coin, they call tails and the 49ers win. And Fred Warner says he wants the ball. Now you see Mahomes jogging back to their sideline saying they want the ball, meaning can you believe it? They don't know what they're doing. Kansas City knew the 49ers had blown it.
"Kyle Shanahan not knowing the rule led directly to the 49ers losing. Christian McCaffrey's fumble, Darrell Luter Jr.'s fumble -- none of that mattered. It was all subtext. What mattered was when they flipped the coin and Shanahan made the disastrous decision, giving the ball to the Chiefs second so they would know what they needed to do.
"After the game, Shanahan said he knew the rule, he had talked to the analytics people and they all agreed they should receive the ball. If that's true, he has the worst analytics department in the league. But here's what troubles me more. I am inclined not to believe Shanahan. Look, I'm not calling him a liar. I'm almost calling him a liar. But he seemed to have changed his story several times. So this is what I'm going to speculate. He didn't know the rule and he blew it, and then he pretended he knew the rule to cover his butt but he really didn't and he wasn't honest about it."
