SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) — Eight months later, the pain of losing a second Super Bowl in five seasons to the Kansas City Chiefs has barely subsided for the San Francisco 49ers as they prepare for a rare regular-season rematch.
Memories of Chris Jones blowing up key plays with pressure, Patrick Mahomes creating plays with his arm and feet, and Travis Kelce getting open in key spots in Kansas City's 25-22 overtime win are hard to avoid as the Niners (3-3) watch tape of that game back in February in preparation for a visit from the Chiefs (5-0) on Sunday.
“Everyone understands that we’ve lost the two Super Bowls to them. So I mean, that can give a little post-traumatic stress when you turn on the tape," coach Kyle Shanahan said Wednesday. “I think that’s human nature. But you’ve got to make sure you don’t get caught up in that. This game has nothing to do with past games, that was last year.”
The game on Sunday marks the 10th time in NFL history the teams that met in the Super Bowl played again in the following regular season, with the defending champion going 6-3 in those games.
The 49ers don't want to dwell on that game and know a regular-season win won't make up for a Super Bowl loss. But they also can't avoid rewatching it in search of any tips that can help them this week.
“It’s definitely a little emotional," defensive end Nick Bosa said. "But at this point, it’s just a game so we’re just looking at the tape, trying to learn from it. A lot of similarities from last year. A few new guys, but a really good defense and an offense obviously has No. 15 (Mahomes) back there. So always dangerous.”
The loss in February stings in part because the 49ers had so many opportunities to come away with the franchise's first championship since the 1994 season.
San Francisco built a 10-0 advantage early and held three leads in the fourth quarter and overtime that Mahomes and the Chiefs were able to erase and eventually overcome thanks to coming up big in key moments.
Kansas City got pressure on Brock Purdy to force two key third-down incompletions that forced field goals in the fourth quarter and overtime. Kelce got loose for a 22-yard gain that set up a tying field goal at the end of regulation. Mahomes converted a fourth-and-1 keeper in overtime to extend a drive that ended with his game-ending TD pass to Mecole Hardman.
The most painful plays are the missed third-down pass at the end of regulation that Purdy said this summer still bothers him since it gave Kansas City time to tie the game and the inability to stop Mahomes on that fourth-down run.
After San Francisco kicked a field goal on the opening possession of overtime, the Niners could have won it with one stop on fourth-and-1.
Mahomes faked an inside handoff to Isiah Pacheco. Bosa crashed down on that play, which he said was his assignment, and Mahomes rolled to his right. When Logan Ryan stayed with Kelce, Mahomes kept the ball and ran 8 yards for the game-extending first down.
“That was tough especially because we have calls that can negate that,” Bosa said. “They ran the zone read a few times and we just didn’t find an answer to it. I definitely thought he was going to hold it or keep it, but I’ve got to do my job, especially in a big moment like that. ... We definitely have a plan for the zone read this time. Hindsight is 20-20.”
Linebacker Fred Warner said there were things San Francisco could have done better to stop that play but added that the game didn't come down to one snap.
“You want to be great in those critical situations to ultimately to end and win the game, but there are little plays throughout the entire game you could have said, `Aw, that was the one. That could have won it,’” he said. “You’ve got to look at all of them.”
Notes: Fill-in K Matthew Wright (shoulder, back) didn't practice. The Niners signed Anders Carlson to the practice squad this week for insurance. ... WR Jauan Jennings (hip) and DT Maliek Collins (knee) didn't practice. ... RB Jordan Mason (shoulder), WR Deebo Samuel (wrist), DT Jordan Elliott (knee), S Malik Mustapha (ankle) and CB Darrell Luter (pelvis) were all limited.
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FILE - Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes celebrates with wide receiver Mecole Hardman Jr. after Hardman scored the game-winning touchdown against the San Francisco 49ers in overtime during the NFL Super Bowl 58 football game, Feb. 11, 2024, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher, File)
FILE - Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes runs with the ball against the San Francisco 49ers during overtime of the NFL Super Bowl 58 football game, Feb. 11, 2024, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez, File)
FILE - San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Jauan Jennings (15) throws a touchdown pass against the Kansas City Chiefs during the NFL Super Bowl 58 football game, Feb. 11, 2024, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Adam Hunger, File)
FILE - Kansas City Chiefs running back Isiah Pacheco (10) runs the ball past San Francisco 49ers defensive back Deommodore Lenoir (2) in NFL Super Bowl 58 football game, Feb. 11, 2024, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Doug Benc,File)
NEW YORK (AP) — The man once heralded as the architect of Mexico’s war on drug cartels was sentenced to more than 38 years in a U.S. prison on Wednesday for taking massive bribes to aid drug traffickers.
Genaro García Luna, Mexico’s former secretary of public security, was convicted by a New York jury in 2023 of taking millions of dollars in bribes to protect the violent Sinaloa cartel that he was supposedly combating. He is the highest-level Mexican government official to be convicted in the United States.
At his sentencing hearing before a federal judge in Brooklyn on Wednesday, García Luna continued to maintain his innocence and said the case against him was based on false information from criminals and the Mexican government.
“I have a firm respect for the law,” he said in Spanish. “I have not committed these crimes.”
García Luna, 56, led Mexico’s federal police before he served in a cabinet-level position as the top security official from 2006 to 2012 under then-President Felipe Calderón. At the time, García Luna was hailed as an ally by the U.S. in its fight on drug trafficking.
But U.S. prosecutors said that in return for millions of dollars, he provided intelligence about investigations against the cartel, information about rival gangs and the safe passage of massive quantities of drugs.
After the sentencing, Calderón said via the social platform X that he respects the court's decision but he never had “verifiable evidence” of García Luna's criminal activities. Calderón said taking on the cartels “was one of the most difficult decisions of my life. But I would do it again, because it is the right thing to do.”
Earlier outside the courthouse, a group of about 15 protesters celebrated the verdict. Some held a banner that said, in Spanish, “Calderon did know,” while others brandished signs denouncing his political party.
Prosecutors had asked for a life sentence. García Luna's lawyers had argued that he should get no more than 20 years.
U.S. District Judge Brian Cogan said he wasn't moved by past accolades that García Luna received for his work in the war on drugs.
“That was your cover,” Cogan said before imposing the sentence. “You are guilty of these crimes, sir. You can’t parade these words and say, ‘I’m police officer of the year.’”
Besides the sentence of 38 years and four months, the judge imposed a $2 million fine.
During the trial, photos were shown of García Luna shaking hands with former President Barack Obama and speaking with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former Sen. John McCain.
But prosecutors said García Luna secretly advanced a drug trafficking conspiracy that resulted in the deaths of thousands of American and Mexican citizens. He ensured that drug traffickers were notified in advance of raids and sabotaged legitimate police operations aimed at apprehending cartel leaders, they said.
Drug traffickers were able to ship over 1 million kilograms of cocaine through Mexico and into the United States using planes, trains, trucks and submarines while García Luna held his posts, prosecutors said.
During former Sinaloa kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán’s trial in the same court in 2018, a former cartel member testified that he personally delivered at least $6 million in payoffs to García Luna and that cartel members agreed to pool up to $50 million to pay for his protection.
“He enabled the cartel. He protected the cartel. He was the cartel,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Saritha Komatireddy told the judge Wednesday.
García Luna enabled a corrupt system that allowed violent cartels to thrive and distribute drugs that killed multitudes of people, she added.
“It may not have been the defendant pulling the trigger, but he has blood on his hands,” Komatireddy said.
Prosecutors also said García Luna plotted to undo last year's verdict by seeking to bribe or corruptly convince multiple inmates at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn to support false allegations that two government witnesses communicated via contraband cellular phones in advance of the trial.
García Luna’s lawyer, Cesar de Castro, said the defense intends to appeal the sentence. He said his client is someone who “has served his country” and has now lost his money, his reputation as well as policies he championed in Mexico.
“He has lost close to everything. All that remains is his wonderful family,” de Castro said.
In Mexico, newly inaugurated President Claudia Sheinbaum briefly commented on the case Tuesday, saying: “The big issue here is how someone who was awarded by United States agencies, who ex-President Calderón said wonderful things about his security secretary, today is prisoner in the United States because it’s shown that he was tied to drug trafficking.”
Associated Press writers Fabiola Sánchez and María Verza in Mexico City contributed to this report.
Judge Brian Cogan reads his sentence to Genaro Garcia Luna from the bench in Brooklyn federal court, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024, in New York. (Elizabeth Williams via AP)
Assistant US Attorney Saritha Komatireddy, right, gives the government sentencing statement while Genaro Garcia Luna, center, looks on in Brooklyn federal court, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024, in New York. (Elizabeth Williams via AP)
Genaro Garcia Luna stands flanked by U.S. Marshals as he reads his sentencing statement during his sentencing hearing, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024, at Brooklyn federal court in New York. (Elizabeth Williams via AP)
FILE - Mexico's Genaro Garcia Luna speaks during a ceremony to designate June 2 as Federal Police Day in Mexico City, June 2, 2011. (AP Photo/Alexandre Meneghini, File)
FILE - Mexico's Genaro Garcia Luna speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in Mexico City, Sept. 3, 2009. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills, File)
