The 49ers weren’t Lion (down).
That sensational second-half comeback last evening was certainly not San Francisco’s standard M.O. but it shut down the Cinderella bid by Detroit — despite Dan Campbell’s magic act — still the oldest of four NFL teams never to reach the Super Bowl. (The others: the Cleveland Browns, along with the Houston Texans and Jacksonville’s Jaguars).
Instead, the 49ers make their second trip in five years and their eighth overall, and take aim at their sixth NFL crown. They get the league’s most successful team in recent years, in a rematch of Super Bowl LIV won by Kansas City – now in its fourth Super Bowl berth in five seasons.
For all of the Patrick Mahomes’ passes, Travis Kelce catches and Taylor Swift cutaways, the Chiefs have a local star to thank.
Louisiana Tech product and Minden native L’Jarius Sneed made what Kansas City media is already calling the “play of the season” with a pivotal Peanut Punch starting the fourth quarter, forcing a fumble that denied a Baltimore touchdown.
Sneed will end his fourth season in the NFL playing in his third Super Bowl largely because he knocked the ball loose from Ravens’ receiver Tay Flowers, who was stretching for the goalline no more than a foot away from scoring a TD that would have tightened the game to 17-14 on the first play of the final 15 minutes.
“I saw [Flowers]. He had a step on me and all that was in my mind was just catch up and make the tackle,” Sneed said. “When I saw him stretch the ball, I just punched the ball and it came out.”
It was the fifth forced fumble of Sneed’s career and obviously the best timed – not only for the Chiefs’ Super Bowl hopes, but for his contract negotiations.
His rookie contract ends after the Super Bowl. Sneed’s stock has steadily increased during his days in KC, and especially this year. While not picked for the Pro Bowl (he’s playing in a better game) or the All-Pro team, he’s been mentioned for both because of his superb performance on the edge against top receivers. Sneed has not given up a touchdown this season.
Last month, Pro Football Focus projected Sneed was in line to get a three-year deal worth $52 million – with $30 million guaranteed – from the Chiefs. Now he’ll get a Super Bowl check ($157,000 for winning players) and a little extra gratitude from the Hunt family when negotiations wrap up.
His rookie contract, as a fourth-round pick, paid a total of $3.9 million. Next fall, he’ll make that before midseason.
Without that pivotal play Sunday, it’s reasonable to think Baltimore, playing at home, down by only 17-14 with the whole fourth quarter left, would have prevailed.
Hope you caught the reference to the Peanut Punch. That’s the tag created by Chicago Bears fans years ago to describe fumble-forcing stabs by defenders – namely Bears’ cornerback Charles “Peanut” Tillman, like Sneed, a product of a Louisiana college, UL-Lafayette.
Tillman, a charming 2020 inductee in the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame, forced an incredible 44 fumbles using the technique in his 13 NFL seasons. Not that it wasn’t done before, but not to that level of productivity, which along with his 38 career interceptions keeps Peanut in the conversation for a trip to Canton and the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Speaking of the Bears, they made two coaching hires over the weekend that expanded their fan base locally and elsewhere in Louisiana. Eric Washington, a Shreveport native and 1987 Northwood High graduate, is Chicago’s new defensive coordinator. He played for legendary coach Eddie Robinson at Grambling and coached on Alden Reeves’ Captain Shreve staff.
Washington, 54, was previously an assistant on the defensive line in Chicago (2008-10) when Tillman was starring for the Bears. He later was a coordinator in Carolina and spent the last three seasons on staff in Buffalo. His departure is considered a major loss for the Bills.
The other Bayou State Bears’ coach is Kerry Joseph, headed for LSHOF induction this June 20-22 in Natchitoches. Joseph is Chicago’s new quarterbacks coach, reuniting with new Bears’ offensive coordinator Shane Waldron. Both were sent away from Seattle when Pete Carroll got canned last month.
Joseph was on Carroll’s staff for four seasons. He played nearly two decades of pro football as one of the more unique figures in recent history – starring at quarterback in the CFL and playing wingback and safety in the NFL. The New Iberia native was a record-shattering QB at McNeese in the mid-1990s.
It never takes long to look for local ties in the NFL – even in the Super Bowl, topped by two-time MVP Terry Bradshaw, of course, heading the Shreveport-Bossier delegation. This time: along with Sneed for the Chiefs, former Northwestern State assistant August Mangin and Demons’ equipment manager Doc Dressler will be involved in the 49ers’ camp.
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