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Kyle Shanahan Showed 49ers Video of Seahawks Celebrating Win As Pregame Motivation
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The Seahawks host the 49ers in Seattle on Saturday night with a spot in the NFC championship on the line.
It’s the third time this season the two teams have met, with the NFC West foes splitting their games during the regular season. The 49ers’ win over the Seahawks came all the way back in Week 1, while Seattle’s victory came just two weeks ago, in a Week 18 matchup that served as a de facto championship game for the division.
The Seahawks celebrated their win in kind, donning the hats and shirts that named them division champions as they looked towards the postseason. Apparently, 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan in trying to use that celebration against them.
According to ESPN’s Lindsey Thiry, Shanahan showed his players a cut of the Seahawks’ locker room party after they became NFC West division champions as a way of motivating his team ahead of kickoff.
NFL Countdown: In a team meeting before their divisional match up, 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan showed his team a reel of Seahawks IG posts “shitting on us, really like they had just won the Super Bowl” following their Week 18 win. Motivational for the 49ers, to say the least. pic.twitter.com/KRByf6L6O9
— Lindsey Thiry (@LindseyThiry) January 17, 2026
On the one hand, teams will take any potential edge they can, and if Shanahan thinks video of the Seahawks partying in the 49ers’ visitor’s locker room can get his guys fired up, more power to him.
At the same time, what were the Seahawks supposed to do here? Solemnly collect their hats and shirts as they silently made their way back to Seattle, meditating on the next victory they needed to continue their postseason journey?
Further, do the 49ers really need extra motivation heading into a matchup against a familiar foe with one win standing between them and the NFC championship?
We’ll see just how fired up the 49ers are when the action kicks off in Seattle at 8 p.m. ET on Fox.
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Tyler Lauletta is a staff writer for the Breaking and Trending News Team/team at Sports Illustrated. Before joining SI, he covered sports for nearly a decade at Business Insider, and helped design and launch the OffBall newsletter. He is a graduate of Temple University in Philadelphia, and remains an Eagles and Phillies sicko. When not watching or blogging about sports, Tyler can be found scratching his dog behind the ears.