Super Bowl 58 once again pits Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid against San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan.
This is the fourth time that there’s been a head coach rematch in the Super Bowl.
There is also a Super Bowl trend that Shanahan would like to avoid if he wants to lead the 49ers to a record-tying sixth all-time Super Bowl triumph.
Of the three previous head coach rematches in Super Bowl history, the victorious coach in the first meeting also won the rematch.
Four years ago, Reid’s Chiefs scored 21 unanswered fourth-quarter points to rally past Shanahan’s 49ers and win Super Bowl 54. Since then, the Chiefs have appeared in two more Super Bowls, winning Super Bowl 57 against the Philadelphia Eagles.
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Here’s how the previous three head coaching rematches in the Super Bowl transpired:
Super Bowl 13: Chuck Noll vs. Tom Landry
Chuck Noll’s Pittsburgh Steelers and Tom Landry’s Dallas Cowboys clashed in a dramatic Super Bowl X — best known now for game MVP Lynn Swann’s acrobatic catches. The Steelers prevailed, 21-17, to collect a second straight Super Bowl win (and, at the time, become the third back-to-back Super Bowl winner).
Three years later, these two titans matched up again in a game dubbed the ‘Battle of Champions.’ A game that might have featured the most talent of any championship in NFL history included 17 players in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, seven coaches and administrators in the Hall of Fame, not to mention Hall of Fame coach Tony Dungy (then a Steelers player).
The Cowboys were the defending champions when they faced the Steelers in one of the best Super Bowls ever played. The Steelers outlasted the Cowboys, 35-31, in a game that featured myriad of big plays and infamous moments (‘bless his heart, he’s got to be the sickest man in America’).
The Steelers went on to repeat as Super Bowl champions, while the Cowboys waited another 14 years before another title.
Super Bowl 28: Jimmy Johnson vs. Marv Levy
During the 1990s, the Buffalo Bills played in four consecutive Super Bowls, a feat that not even the Tom Brady-led New England Patriots accomplished. However, the Bills lost all four of those Super Bowls. The final two came against the Cowboys, as the team rose under the guidance of head coach Jimmy Johnson from the depths of a 1-15 season in 1989 to title-winners during the 1992 and 1993 seasons – both of those coming at the expense of Marv Levy’s Bills.
The first matchup was a blowout, with the Cowboys winning 52-17. The follow-up title matchup was closer, but the Cowboys rebounded from a 13-6 halftime deficit to score 24 unanswered second-half points in a 30-13 win.
The Cowboys’ bid for the first Super Bowl three-peat fell short the next season, but the team (with Johnson unceremoniously replaced by Barry Switzer at head coach) won Super Bowl XXX against the Steelers in a rematch of those two teams’ epic 1970s clashes. The Cowboys have not even managed to play in the NFC championship game since then, while the Bills have played in just one conference championship game since Super Bowl 28 (a 38-24 loss to the Chiefs during the 2020 season).
Super Bowl 46: Tom Coughlin vs. Bill Belichick
During the height of the Brady and Bill Belichick era Patriots, the Eli Manning and Tom Coughlin-led New York Giants had their number in Super Bowls.
The first meeting was unforgettable, as the Patriots entered Super Bowl 42 with a perfect 18-0 record. The Giants spoiled the Patriots’ perfect season hopes, winning 17-14, thanks to a near-miraculous late-game catch by receiver David Tyree.
Four years later, the Giants defeated the Patriots again in a close game, 21-17. This game also featured an amazing catch. This time it was Mario Manningham making a clutch catch along the sideline that set up the game-winning score.
The Patriots rebounded – though it took a couple years. Between the 2014 and 2018 seasons, the Patriots played in four more Super Bowls, winning three.
