MIAMI, Fla. -- Kyle Shanahan's tenure as 49ers head coach didn't get off to an ideal start. The 49ers opened the 2017 season 0-9, but finished strong, going 6-1 down the stretch.
Shanahan and general manager John Lynch have talked a lot about the journey the 49ers have taken to go from 0-9 in 2017 to playing in Super Bowl LIV against the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday in Miami.
It took a complete roster overhaul, a culture reset and having everyone buy-in on the vision they had for the franchise.
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A win Sunday in Super Bowl LIV would be a milestone moment for Shanahan, but the feeling might be very similar to the rush he felt when the 49ers finally got him his first win, beating the New York Giants 31-21in 2017.
"We think about that win a lot," Shanahan said Thursday. "Starting 0-9 was not fun at all. Your first year as a head coach you kind of want to get that monkey off your back and at least get one win in. I think we had to wait until the beginning of November which was a lot longer than anticipated. It did feel like we won the Super Bowl after it. It was nice to have. We'd been in so many games, we broke an NFL record by losing five games in a row three points or less. Which is something you are not proud of, but it means you are a good 0-9 I guess. That doesn't make sense.
"But yeah, we were pumped," Shanahan continued. "We were fighting every week. Everybody. It wasn't just me. We had a lot of guys who it was there first year in the league, they hadn't played much. We put a lot in every week and we came up short a ton. We won that game and it felt huge. We lost the next game so we probably did enjoy it a little too much and you learn from those mistakes."
The 49ers became the only team in NFL history to start 0-9 but finish 6-10. They did so thanks in large part to the insertion of Jimmy Garoppolo as starting quarterback, as he went 5-0 to end the season and proved his worth as a franchise quarterback.
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Twenty-six months after that Super Bowl-esque win against the Giants, Shanahan and the Niners have arrived on the biggest stage in sports having gone from NFL punching bag to bully in no time at all.
Should they win Sunday, they'll enjoy hoisting the Lombardi Trophy a little more than that Week 10 win over the Giants.
Programming note: NBC Sports Bay Area feeds your hunger for 49ers Super Bowl coverage with special editions of “49ers Central” all week (8:30 p.m. Thursday, 9:30 p.m. Friday, and 3 p.m. Saturday).
Also tune in at 1 p.m. on Super Bowl Sunday for a two-hour special of "49ers Pregame Live" with Laura Britt, Donte Whitner, Jeff Garcia, Ian Williams, Kelli Johnson, Greg Papa and Grant Liffmann. That same crew will have all the postgame reaction on "49ers Postgame Live," starting immediately after the game.