How the San Francisco 49ers Stopped Being Losers (Ep. 350 Update)

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4.6 • 32K Ratings

🗓️ 30 January 2020

⏱️ 61 minutes

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Summary

One of the most storied (and valuable) sports franchises in the world had fallen far. So they decided to do a full reboot — and it worked: this week, they are headed back to the Super Bowl. Before the 2018 season, we sat down with the team’s owner, head coach, general manager, and players as they were plotting their turnaround. Here’s an update of that episode.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey there, it's Stephen Dubner.
0:07.2	Once in a while, an episode from our archive suddenly becomes very, very timely.
0:12.2	For instance, back in 2018, we put out an episode called How to Stop Being a Loser, about
0:18.3	the San Francisco 49ers.
0:20.2	It was part of our hidden side of sports series.
0:22.6	The episode looked at how once phenomenally successful franchise had become, well, a big
0:28.1	loser, and what they were trying to do about that.
0:31.9	Their 2018 season didn't go much better.
0:34.6	In the third game of the season, their new star quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo heard his
0:38.6	knee, and was out for the year.
0:40.5	The team limped to a four and twelve record.
0:43.4	But this year, the 49ers put together one of the most memorable turnarounds in recent
0:49.0	sports history.
0:50.7	San Francisco go into the Super Bowl with a big win tonight over Green Bay.
0:56.4	And so, with the 49ers trying to win their sixth Super Bowl against Kansas City Chiefs,
1:01.2	we thought you might like to hear how they got there.
1:03.4	So here again, is that episode from 2018 with some minor updates where needed.
1:08.8	Everyone we interviewed for this episode is still with the 49ers except for the linebacker
1:12.6	Malcolm Smith.
1:14.1	And some of the players we interviewed were particularly important to the nineers success this year, including
1:18.2	Garoppolo, Robbie Gold, Kyle Yuschek, as well as head coach Kyle Shanahan and General
1:23.8	Manager John Lynch.
	...

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