Montana to Taylor, thirty-four seconds left, ninety-two yards behind him. Super Bowl XXIII, January 1989, Joe Montana coolly walking the 49ers down the field to beat the Bengals 20-16, the drive where he supposedly spotted a comedian in the crowd to settle his nerves. That was the heart of the greatest dynasty of its time. Montana, Jerry Rice, Bill Walsh, and a way of playing offense that made the rest of the league look like it was guessing.

Eight trips, five trophies, and modern heartbreak

San Francisco won five Super Bowls between the early eighties and the mid-nineties, XVI, XIX, XXIII, XXIV and XXIX, the last on Steve Young’s six-touchdown night. Then the trophies stopped. The modern 49ers have been back three times and lost all three, to the Ravens in XLVII, and to the Chiefs in both LIV and LVIII, the second in overtime. Five golden ones, then three close calls that all slipped away.

The two faces of it

A franchise that knew nothing but winning for fifteen years has spent the recent decade learning the other side, the lead that does not hold, the overtime that goes wrong. 49ers fans, you have the dynasty most teams dream about and now a taste of the losing the rest of us live with. Five rings buys a lot of patience. The recent ones still ache, though. I can tell.