For the second time in five seasons, San Francisco 49ers assistant coach Brian Fleury will be coaching in the Super Bowl.
The 49ers lost 31-20 to the Kansas City Chiefs – the same opponent they will face Sunday – in Super Bowl LIV in 2020. Fleury was the team’s defensive quality control coach back then.
Fleury is now the 49ers’ tight ends coach but he also helps with game planning, the run game and “situational stuff.”
“It’s weird that everyone is coming to me now. Never thought I’d be the wise veteran,” he told MCM days before the team departed for Las Vegas.
Fleury told MCM in 2020 that the Super Bowl experience is no different than other successful teams on his journey. “It feels the same way at every level. The feelings that I’ve had about this team all year long are directly parallel with everything I felt about the guys I was playing with (at Seneca Valley) in 1997. Exactly the same. And even the team I coached at Towson in 2011 that won the conference championship and went to the playoffs. They all three felt exactly the same.”
The 6’4″ quarterback started his high school career at Frederick High School then transferred to Seneca Valley in 1997 for his senior season when he led the Screamin’ Eagles to an undefeated season and a state title.
Asked to compare the feeling of quarterbacking Seneca Valley in the state championship game to what it will feel like coaching in the Super Bowl, Fleury said, “I was way less nervous when I had the ball in my hand and felt like I could drastically impact the outcome of the game.”
Fleury started his college career at Maryland then transferred to Towson. After three coaching jobs in college then three stops in the NFL, the 49ers hired him in 2019. As the 49ers tight end coach, Fleury works with George Kittle, one of the best in the NFL. Kittle is part of an offense that is considered one of the most talented, deep and versatile in the NFL.
“The most diversely balance in talent I’ve ever been around. How do you possibly defend everybody?” he asked rhetorically.
Fleury expressed how grateful he is to 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan for “all the support he’s given me.”
After coming up short the last time, the 49ers are hoping the second time’s the charm. Fleury said winning Sunday would be “life-altering.”
