How the 49ers Have Established a Scapegoat Culture

Let's go through the years and analyze each of Shanahan's biggest excuses/scapegoats.

Grant Cohn | Feb 26, 2024

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San Francisco 49ers

Kyle Shanahan doesn't have any Super Bowl rings yet, but he does have lots of excuses, plus he finds a new scapegoat every year, because it's never his fault when he falls short.

Let's go through the years and analyze each of Shanahan's biggest excuses/scapegoats.

2017: No scapegoat necessary. Shanahan took over the worst roster in the NFL and was given a one-year grace period to turn it around.

2018: Taylor Swift. The 49ers surely were going to win the Super Bowl that year, but Jimmy Garoppolo slipped and tore his ACL on the Arrowhead Field grass, which was slippery because it had been resodded 15 days before the game due to a Taylor Swift concert.

2019. Jimmy Garoppolo. The 49ers surely were going to win the Super Bowl that year, but Garoppolo airmailed a wide open Emmanuel Sanders deep down the middle of the field for what should have been a touchdown pass in the fourth quarter of the Super Bowl, and the 49ers lost.

2020: The Turf at MetLife Stadium. The 49ers surely were going to win the Super Bowl that year, but the 49ers had to play on the MetLife Stadium turf, which is extra spongy, and Jimmy Garoppolo suffered a high-ankle sprain on it while Nick Bosa suffered a torn ACL on it the following week, and the 49ers missed the playoffs.

2021: Jaquiski Tartt. The 49ers surely were going to win the Super Bowl that year, but Jaquiski Tartt dropped a gimme interception in the fourth quarter of the NFC Championship Game and the 49ers lost to the Rams.

2022: Tyler Kroft. The 49ers surely were going to win the Super Bowl that year, but third-string tight end Tyler Kroft failed to block All Pro edge rusher Haason Reddick, who hit Brock Purdy and tore his UCL, and the 49ers lost.

2023: Spencer Burford, Steve Wilks and Taylor Swift again. The 49ers surely were going to win the Super Bowl, but backup right guard Spencer Burford blocked the wrong player one time, and Steve Wilks gave up one long touchdown drive in the Super Bowl, and the 49ers lost to the team whose star tight end is dating Taylor Swift, who clearly has a vendetta against Shanahan.

Published Feb 26, 2024

GRANT COHN

Grant Cohn has covered the San Francisco 49ers daily since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes such as Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis. In 2012, Inside the 49ers won Sports Blog of the Year from the Peninsula Press Club. In 2020, Cohn joined FanNation and began writing All49ers. In addition, he created a YouTube channel which has become the go-to place on YouTube to consume 49ers content. Cohn's channel typically generates roughly 3.5 million viewers per month, while the 49ers' official YouTube channel generates roughly 1.5 million viewers per month. Cohn live streams almost every day and posts videos hourly during the football season. Cohn is committed to asking the questions that 49ers fans want answered, and providing the most honest and interactive coverage in the country. His loyalty is to the reader and the viewer, not the team or any player or coach. Cohn is a new-age multimedia journalist with an old-school mentality, because his father is Lowell Cohn, the legendary sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1979 to 1993. The two have a live podcast every Tuesday. Grant Cohn grew up in Oakland and studied English Literature at UCLA from 2006 to 2010. He currently lives in Oakland with his wife.