The 49ers in 2024 have a rather daunting task ahead of them. They’ll be trying to climb the Super Bowl mountain the season after losing a Super Bowl. Only six teams have ever managed to do this, and only one team has done it since the 1993 season, and only three of those teams went on to win the year after losing.
Part of the reason this happens is because getting to a Super Bowl is hard. Regardless of the previous season’s circumstances, every trip toward the NFL’s mountaintop comes with obstacles and adversity that keep even the best teams from ascending to its peak. Then there’s the added emotional weight of losing on the biggest stage and trying to overcome that hurdle to start the year.
Of the six teams that have managed this feat, four did it between 1972 and 1988. Since the turn of the century it has only happened one time, and that was a New England Patriots club that featured Bill Belichick and Tom Brady. It is exceedingly difficult, but it’s not impossible, and the 49ers will aim to join those Pats as the only post-2000 team to complete the journey.
Here’s a quick rundown of the six teams that have been back to a Super Bowl a year after losing it, including the Buffalo Bills which went to four straight and lost them all: