The San Francisco 49ers sit at 3-3 atop the NFC West ahead of Sunday's heavyweight showdown with the Kansas City Chiefs.
The rematch between Super Bowl foes means a lot to the Niners, but for left tackle Trent Williams, getting revenge for a February loss isn't high on the list.
"When you think about the reality of it, we can beat them by 100 [and] we're not popping champagne, confetti's not going to fall," Williams said Thursday, "It can never be an even or a payback situation, so why even carry that grudge?
"Football is 90 percent mental, 10 percent physical. If your mind is clouded with stuff that has nothing to do with Sunday, you run the risk of not being everything you want to be."
The Chiefs have bested the Niners in Super Bowls LIV and LVIII. San Francisco held a 10-point lead in each contest before faltering. In February's Lombardi loss, the Niners allowed K.C. to score on each of its final four possessions.
The collapse tendency have followed Kyle Shanahan's club into the 2024 season. Two of the Niners' three losses have come with fourth-quarter debacles, wherein the offense turned the ball over and the defense couldn't get stops against division foes.
The mantra in San Francisco is not dwelling on the Super Bowl loss.
"I do a pretty good job of flushing stuff. Flushing Super Bowl losses? Not the easiest thing to do," tight end George Kittle said. "If you let stuff linger and you let stuff affect you like that, you can't be the player that you want to be. I just try my best to tune out whatever noise is being said on the outside.
"Coach (Kyle) Shanahan had a really good team meeting the other day. It's like, 'you can't live in the past. You can't look into the future. You have to just look for the moment at what you're in now.' This is a different game, a lot of similar players but technically a different team. We're a different team a little bit, too."
Sunday marks the 10th regular season rematch of the previous season's Super Bowl. The reigning Super Bowl champion is 6-3 in the last nine meetings, but the Chiefs are 0-2 in such matchups (lost in 2023 vs. Philadelphia and 1970 vs. Minnesota).
