On Sunday, January 10, 1982, I was dressed and ready for my cousin to pick me up and take me to the 49ers playoff game against the Cowboys at Candlestick Park. Then the phone rang. My cousin's boss had changed his mind and was going to attend the game, thus there was no extra ticket for me. I not only missed one of the biggest games in 49er history, I also missed being in the stadium for the team's most magical play: Joe Montana to Dwight Clark for "The Catch." That was a rough Sunday. But at least we won the game and launched what would be an NFL dynasty. These days, the 49ers (and the rest of the NFL) are the victims of a dynasty, and suffering through Sunday February 11, 2024 was a hell of lot worse than missing The Catch. It was especially rough for kids my son's age. Even though I'm shocked that he's already 4 Kung Fu Pandas old, he wasn't around for the 49er glory days, and he was left, along with a couple friends on a Dorito-dusted couch, in a darkened room still warm from the now shut-off TV, to once again experience the agony of defeat— a feeling Nick Bosa described perfectly during a postgame interview. "It’s gonna hurt. It’s going to hit in waves. But that’s life." SF Chronicle columnist Scott Ostler described the loss as a painful déjà vu that will sting forever. But don't worry, son. Nothing is forever. It only took forty two years for my disappointment about missing the Catch to be overshadowed by my disappointment about losing another Super Bowl. And the SF Giants pitchers and catchers report in two days. We've got plenty more disappointment to look forward to.

+ On Friday, I wrote that the two keys to the game were: One, whether or not the 49ers could reverse recent trends and contain the edge against the Chief's offense. And two, Patrick Mahomes. And so it was. The 49ers did a good job with contain. That gave them plenty of chances to win. But Patrick Mahomes came through in the end. Yes, there is much more analysis to be considered during my next few hundred hours listening to local sports radio, but in the end, it was Mahomes. Peter King: "On Sunday night, Mahomes did it again. A great player like Mahomes can have games when he stumbles around, gets pressured by Nick Bosa 10 times (10!), throws an uncharacteristically lamebrain interception and scores six points in the first 40 minutes. And he still has it in him, against an oppressive defense, to finish touchdown-field goal-field goal-touchdown, and go 8-for-8 on the Super Bowl-winning drive, and win his third Super Bowl MVP. Kansas City 25, (heartbroken) San Francisco 22. Overtime." From the The Ringer: The Winners and Losers of Super Bowl LVIII. (Winner: Patrick Mahomes. Loser: Hope.) And ESPN: How Mahomes and the Chiefs beat the 49ers in Super Bowl 2024. And now Mahomes and the Chiefs will try to make NFL history by winning three straight Super Bowls. The Pat-trick is the new Hat-trick. (KC fans, feel free to take that line. You've taken everything else.)

+ Mecole Hardman Says He ‘Blacked Out’ After Catching Super Bowl Winning Touchdown. (Same.)

+ Were you confused about the overtime rules? So were the 49ers.

+ To me, the halftime show wasn't among the more memorable we've seen. But it's getting good reviews, like this from The Hollywood Reporter: Usher and Friends Bring Boundless Energy to a Sparkling Super Bowl LVIII Halftime Show. (Anyone who has the guts to rollerskate in front of 120 million people has my respect). And Usher may have had an even bigger weekend than we know, because he and his longtime GF got a marriage license in Clark County before the game, which brings up an intriguing philosophical question: What do you call wedding ushers at Usher's wedding?

+ And of course, the actual star of the show... Best 2024 Super Bowl commercials: All 59 ranked according to USA TODAY Ad Meter.

+ A timely piece interactive from WaPo (Gift Article): Love spicy food? Hate it? Watch a hot wing’s trip through your body.

+ OK, OK, yes, there was a much-anticipated postgame kiss between Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift. In the spirit of good sportsmanship, I'm gonna let my daughter listen to Taylor's music again after a brief respite. (I suggested 2027, she suggested this morning on the way to school.)

2

Enemies, A Love Story

"Donald Trump, the 45th president of the United States and the presumptive Republican nominee, said earlier today that he would side with Russia against NATO and encourage Russian President Vladimir Putin to brutalize our allies. Not so long ago, many Americans—and especially most Republicans—would have considered anyone supporting such a view to be little more than a deranged and hateful anti-American fanatic." The Atlantic (Gift Article): Trump Encourages Putin to Attack NATO Members.

+ And that's not the worst of it. NYT: GOP Officials, Once Critical, Stand by Trump After NATO Comments. Think I'm over-covering this story? Trust me, our allies think we're under-covering it.

+ Meanwhile, Trump's treachery gets less coverage than the special counsel hit job on Biden. Margaret Sullivan: The media's circular logic and destructive obsession with Biden's age. "The New York Times was, of course, just asking questions. Why, oh why, do Joe Biden’s age, memory failures and gaffes seem to hurt him so much more than Donald Trump’s age, memory failures and gaffes hurt him? ... CNN, meanwhile, was running this chyron: 'Is Biden’s Age Now a Bigger Problem Than Trump’s Indictments?' A panel gave this question every due consideration, and then some."

3

Waylon Pennings

"Waylon soon grew to be 'two hundred fifty pounds of pure protein,' as Austin likes to say—more than an average-sized NFL linebacker. By then, Austin had moved him to a large pen a few hundred yards away from the family home. On particularly beautiful days, he liked to lie on the ground in the enclosure, listening to sports radio and watching the clouds pass by. Inevitably, Waylon would lie down beside him, gingerly resting his enormous, wart-covered head on Austin’s thigh. They could remain that way for five or six hours at a time." Texas Monthly: His Best Friend Was a 250-Pound Warthog. One Day, It Decided to Kill Him. (I can't decide whether to go with a sports fan metaphor or a political one, so I'll just leave this alone.)

4

Losing Travel Agency

"'I was almost embarrassed ... It felt inauthentic asking a chatbot to plan my honeymoon.' What did it mean, exactly, to leave a major life experience to the inscrutable statistical mean of an internet’s worth of information? He was holding onto an ideal of himself, he said, as a seasoned traveler that 'just inherently knows what to do and how to find things.' But also, the things the AI found looked pretty good." The Verge: The return of the (robot) travel agent. A bride, a groom, a honeymoon — and ChatGPT. (Threesomes aren't what they used to be.)

+ How big is AI these days? Let's look to the marketcap of the industry's leading chipmaker to find out: Nvidia Overtakes Amazon in Market Value.

5

Extra, Extra

Hostage Rescue Raid: "The Biden administration is deeply concerned about an Israeli operation that rescued two hostages out of Rafah but may have also resulted in some one hundred Palestinians being killed as part of that operation, according to a senior administration official. The hostages — 60-year-old Fernando Simon Marman and 70-year-old Louis Har — were rescued Monday morning after spending 128 days in captivity." Here's the latest from CNN.

+ Violent But Silent: "The number of murders across the country surged by nearly 30% between 2019 and 2020, according to FBI statistics. The overall violent crime rate, which includes murder, assault, robbery and rape, inched up around 5% in the same period. But in 2023, crime in America looked very different." Violent crime is dropping fast in the U.S. — even if Americans don't believe it. (I'm convinced 40% of Americans think the Las Vegas Sphere is flat...)

+ Too Short a Run: NPR: Kelvin Kiptum, men's marathon world record holder, dies in a car crash. BBC: The Kenyan marathon runner destined for greatness. "The 24-year-old, who six years ago was unable to afford a pair of shoes to run in his first major competitive race, had recently been talked about as one of the best marathon runners the world had ever seen. Given that before 2022 he had never even run the full distance, his rapid ascent to the peak of the sport left many breathless."

+ Mourning the Morning: Bob Edwards, the veteran broadcaster and longtime host of Morning Edition who left an indelible mark on NPR's sound, has died. He was 76 years old.

+ Paste Embraced: “It was a brand with a lot of uses ... But nobody used it." That was until one social media influence started "hinching." NYT (Gift Article): What Happens When TikTok Is Your Marketing Department. "The Pink Stuff, a home cleaning paste, went from total obscurity to viral sensation — and Walmart staple — thanks to one 'cleanfluencer' and her legion of fans."

+ School Bard: Need some Monday inspiration? Check out podcaster Pete Dominick standing up local schoolboard bullies for creating fake controversies and punching down.

6

Bottom of the News

"A person jumped on the hood of a Waymo driverless taxi and smashed its windshield in San Francisco’s Chinatown ... generating applause before a crowd formed around the car and covered it in spray paint, breaking its windows, and ultimately set it on fire." A crowd destroyed a driverless Waymo car in San Francisco. And this was before the Super Bowl.