Redmond: The Curse of the San Francisco 49ers

The San Francisco 49ers suffered yet another devastating injury last week in their game against Tampa Bay.

Fred Warner, their all-world middle linebacker, is likely lost for the season with a shredded ankle (not the technical term). Fred has been added to the field hospital that is the 49ers roster. They are already missing their franchise quarterback, Hall of Fame tight end, and defensive end, along with other key players from what should have been a Super Bowl team. It’s incredibly bad luck as they also had a great team last year, and the season was lost to injuries. Could they still make some trades, fill in some defensive gaps, and make a Super Bowl run? Yes, that’s possible. The team is so well coached by Kyle Shanahan that they could win with reserves and second-teamers. If they do go on to win the Super Bowl, it will break a 14-year curse. It is not hyperbole to say that San Francisco could have won 7 of the last 14 Super Bowls. That’s 50%. And they ended up winning none of them. That’s 0%. Let’s take a walk through this deep, dark forest of misses starting in 2011.

The 2011 San Francisco 49ers were their first under new coach Jim Harbaugh, who took over for Mike Singletary, who had no business having the job. Singletary was an overrated linebacker on some amazing Bears teams, but he was a pile jumper… a guy who jumped on piles to try and get his tackle statistics up. Anyone who plays football long enough has seen these types of guys. The fact that Singletary was able to fool the public into thinking he was a Hall-of-Fame linebacker is a credit to him, I guess. Anyway, Harbaugh had the team on track, and they immediately jumped out to a 9-1 record. Alex Smith was playing some great football, and they walked into the postseason. After a thrilling win against the Saints in the divisional round, they played the Giants for the NFC Championship. The 49ers were favored at home by 2.5 with a chance to go to the Super Bowl. Disaster struck when their punt returner, Ted Ginn, was injured before the game, and his replacement, rookie Kyle Williams, fumbled two times. The first fumbled punt in the 4th quarter set up the Giants to take the lead, and the second occurred in overtime, allowing the Giants to kick a field goal to win. Ouch.

The 2012 team was a juggernaut that went 13-3 and marched into the Super Bowl with Colin Kaepernick playing at a high level. People forget how good Kaepernick was for two years. They lost a gut-wrenching Super Bowl to the Ravens when they were stopped after being set up with 1st and goal at the 7-yard line. Their last offensive play of the game was a controversial no-call on Jimmy Smith as he might have interfered with Michael Crabtree. That hurt.

The 2013 team got totally screwed out of a Super Bowl by the referees. Another great regular season at 12-4 and rolled into the NFC Championship vs the Seahawks. They led 17-13 late in the 3rd quarter and were driving when they were forced to punt. Seattle special teamer Chris Maragos hit punter Andy Lee on his plant foot, automatically roughing the kicker and incurring a 15-yard penalty, which would continue their drive. The refs missed the obvious call. Instead of putting the Seahawks away with a scoring drive, the team lost possession, allowing the Seahawks to drive downfield and take the lead for good. This was the de facto Super Bowl as the Seahawks ended up beating the Broncos by 40 points.

2014- They started 7-4, then collapsed. This was Harbaugh’s last year.

2015 – The Jim Tomsula year – how was this guy a coach? I wouldn’t trust him to mail a letter.

2016- The Chip Kelly year, and they finished 2-14. Chip should’ve stayed at Oregon. The grass is not always greener.

2017- Kyle Shanahan’s first year. Started 0-9 but turned it around with a strong finish.

2018- Not good but still improving

2019- A great year with QB Jimmy Garoppolo. They rolled through the regular season and playoffs. They were leading the Chiefs 20-10 in the 4th quarter of the Super Bowl, but fell apart, losing 31-20. A few bad calls went against them, but they were not the better team. They still could’ve won, though.

2020 was a Bad year as they had too many injuries. They had a league-high 18 players on injured reserve. This will become a constant refrain.

2021- A gritty 49ers team had the Rams on the ropes in the NFC championship, but couldn’t put them away, losing 20-17. Up 17-14 in the 4th quarter, the infamous Jaquiski Tartt dropped an easy interception, allowing the Rams to continue a drive and tie the score. If he catches that interception, they are likely headed to the Super Bowl. And it was an easy interception. They would have been a 1-point underdog in the Super Bowl vs the Bengals, so who knows how that would have ended.

2022- Brock Purdy saved the season. He came in after a Jimmy G injury and didn’t miss a beat, taking the team to the NFC Championship. Then, of course, he injures his elbow on the first drive. Game over. Would they have won with a healthy Purdy? There’s no doubt in my mind. That would have put them in the Super Bowl against the Chiefs, where they again would have been a slight underdog of maybe 2 points.

2023- Their best chance to win the Super Bowl. Rolled through the regular season. Had some tough playoff games, but got through them and were the favorites in the Super Bowl against the Chiefs. They dominated the first half but couldn’t put them away. Coming out of halftime, defensive stud Dre Greenlaw freakishly tears his Achilles and is replaced by the horrible Oren Burks, who couldn’t play a lick- worse than Singletary. The 49ers still look like they will win until another fumbled punt reminiscent of 2011 turns the tide. Kansas City gets it to overtime and wins with a touchdown. This one hurt me personally, as I would have retired had San Francisco held on. Seriously.

2024- A promising start derailed by injuries (sound familiar), and they finish 6-10.

2025- Started 4-1 despite missing Bosa, Purdy, Aiyuk, Kittle, Muhammed, Barch, Pearsall, Jennings, Green, Gross-Matos, Burford, Davis….I’m going to run out of space for this column. The Warner injury is a killer, and they are now 4-2 after losing on Sunday to Tampa Bay. But they are resilient, with the best coach and the toughest player in the league, Christian McCaffrey. If they can make a few trades and get some talent on defense, I think San Francisco could have another Super Bowl heartbreak in their future.