To loosely steal a quote from Hank Williams, Jr, are you ready for a Super Bowl?  The race for the Lombardi Trophy is now down to just two teams, set to square off in Florida on February 2.  The San Francisco 49ers meet the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LIV and, surprisingly, are seen as the underdogs to win.  We’ll know soon enough if oddsmakers are right, but now’s a good time as any to brush up on some Super Bowl history and the coaching storylines of these two teams, as well as the big game.

History doesn’t always have a way of repeating itself (although the New Orleans Saints might challenge that call, as well), but the Niners have a solid track record when it comes to Super Bowl appearances.  They’ve been here six times and have won five of the contests – the only loss was to the Baltimore Ravens in 2013.  Of those five wins, two have been in Miami.

Super Bowl Coaching Stories

San Francisco’s head coach, Kyle Shanahan shares an important piece of history with the team.  His father, Mike Shanahan, was the offensive coordinator for the Niners when the team won Super Bowl XXIX.  If Kyle gets to hoist the trophy, it will be the first time that a father-son team have been part of the Super Bowl-winning team.

The 49ers are also about to make history in another way.  The team is the first in the league to have a female coach as it heads to the final contest and Katie Sowers, a former football player and current assistant coach, is proud of the fact.  Sowers, only the second female to be a full-time NFL coach, is also proud to be the first openly-LGBTQ coach to be on the sidelines of a Super Bowl game.

The Chiefs have seen two Super Bowl games, but this is the first appearance since the American Football League (AFL) and the NFL merged.   The team was founded in 1960 and relocated to Kansas City three years later.  It took the AFL Championship three times and then took the first-ever AFL-NFL Championship in 1969 against the Minnesota Vikings.  That win gave it the ability to brag about being the only AFL team to have ever beaten an NFL team in the championship game.

Chiefs head coach Andy Reid has a solid track record in the NFL.  As a head coach, first with the Philadelphia Eagles before moving to Kansas City in 2013, he has designed playbooks that have resulted in a total of 207 wins during regular season play.  That’s more than any other head coach in league history, but Reid is still missing one accolade.  Despite his success, he has never been able to lay his hands on a Super Bowl trophy that his team won while he was head coach.  He was an assistant coach when the Green Bay Packers took Super Bowl XXXI against the New England Patriots, but that was as close as he has come.

The Head to Head & Miami

These two teams have met a total of 13 times during regular-season action.  San Francisco maintains the winning record, but only barely at 7-6.  The last time they faced off on the battlefield, the Chiefs won, 38-27.  That was during the 2018-19 season.

The NFL must feel sorry for the city of Miami; possibly for the Dolphins, as well.  This is going to be the 11th time that Miami has seen a Super Bowl (New Orleans follows with 10) and the city is the only one to have been chosen to host back-to-back Super Bowls (1968 and 1969).

Jennifer Lopez is going to take the spotlight for this year’s Super Bowl halftime show.  She’s going to be on stage with Shakira, but no word has yet been given on what songs will be performed.  There are NFL prop bets to take a chance on what’s coming, but the really interesting prop bet is the one that predicts J-Lo might show “butt cleavage.”  Unfortunately, the oddsmakers are leaning toward no.