The 49ers owner tried to put a positive spin on the team’s season ending in a Super Bowl loss.
The San Francisco 49ers made the Super Bowl for the second time in five years this past season, but fell short once again to the Kansas City Chiefs, losing in overtime 25-22 to send them packing without any hardware at the end of the year.
It was a depressing finish for the 49ers, who had come so close to achieving their goals, but blew another 10-point lead, seeing their hopes dwindle as the game came to an end.
While many believed the season was a Super Bowl or bust year, considering the talent on the roster, one prominent face still viewed the campaign as successful: owner Jed York.
“I just think you can’t be ashamed of a successful season,” York said at the NFL owners meetings this week. “Our goal is always going to be to win Super Bowls, and even if we won the game, it’s not like, ‘Okay, well, we can take off 2024 because we won the Super Bowl in 2023.’ Our goal is always going to be the same.”
York has been in charge of the 49ers as their CEO for the past 13 years, where he’s seen his mindset change from more Super Bowl or bust to finding the good in successful seasons.
“What I’ve learned in my time as CEO, it’s not a complete failure to not win,” York said. where I had probably more of a ‘you either win the Super Bowl or you 100 percent lose [thought process].’”
“You can’t not celebrate the fact that we’ve accomplished some really good things with this team.”
While the ultimate objective for the team will always be Super Bowls, York’s goal is to continue fielding a successful program, noting that winning the Super Bowl only comes by reaching the feat first.
“I would trade a lot of good seasons for winning a Super Bowl, but we’ve collectively had a very successful program, and I want to make sure that we continue to do that,” York said. “And the only way to win the Super Bowl: you have to get there first. And we’ve obviously been very close several times, and you have to keep building off of it.”
“You can’t leave and say the whole season was a disgrace. It’s not. It’s a disappointment to not win, but you can’t destroy yourself and destroy everything that you built because you didn’t finish and hit your ultimate goal. That doesn’t mean we’re not going to work towards it and do everything that we can to continue to build this thing so we get back there and go win it in New Orleans this year. But, that’s my feeling about it.”
The 49ers have been one of the more successful teams over the past five seasons, reaching the NFC Championship in three consecutive years, while winning the fifth-most games in the NFL in that time period (54).
However, they ultimately have no Super Bowl to show for it, falling short in the big game twice, and are facing a significant year ahead of them, as the 49ers will have several key decisions to make with their core players next offseason.
Still, it appears that doesn’t faze the team’s owner as much, as long as the team remains successful in the regular season and maintains that level of success every year.
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