Dieter Kurtenbach, Bay Area News Group Columnist

A peanut butter M&M's production. In a world where Super Bowl winners get the world's admiration and a fancy ring, but the runners-up get nothing, one retired cop returns. That's one retired quarterback. Read the script.

Oh, sorry. One retired quarterback returns to claim what's his. Um, that's claim a ring with diamonds made from M&M's peanut butter, but you're on a roll. The Ring of Comfort coming soon to a Super Bowl new you.

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2024 Santa Fe available early 2024. Dieter, thank you for taking the time to hop on. Anytime, but I was told that I was only talking Taylor Swift on this hit, so I only presume that that's what we're going to hit.

Well, tell me, tell me what your favorite Taylor song is. Knock It Out the Park. I'll tell you right now that that set myself up for failure on this one, so I'm going to shake it off and we'll go get into some football. Ah, look at that. Listen, we're in the same boat. I started in that shake it off, so there we have it.

What can we do? Yeah, I don't know anything else. I heard it in a Gap commercial and it's stuck in my brain. There it is. Hey, Dieter man, how were things out in Vegas this week? You know, the circus, normal circus. I know the weather was cold.

What was it? Yeah, it's I mean, I'll give Vegas credit for this. It's organized well. They know what they're doing with a big event. I think that I think that it's a really good place to have a Super Bowl. I'm very happy I came home to the Bay Area instead of staying for the game.

I'll put it that way. The chaos of the four days, five days I was there. I mean, I'm not a Vegas guy. If you're a Vegas person, it's got to be Mecca. But if you're not a Vegas person, man, it's hell. And it was it was pretty wild seeing more and more people coming onto the strip day in, day out.

I'll say this. This is going to be the only Super Bowl where a bunch of fans who bought tickets a couple of months ago thinking their team might be there. They held on to their tickets. They held on to their hotel reservations. I saw a lot of 49ers fans.

So a lot of cheese stands, obviously. But man, I was seeing Lions fans and Ravens fans and Packers fans. I mean, I think people are there for the show. And Vegas puts on one hell of a show.

And I think this game is going to be a hell of a show no matter where you're watching. Dieter Kurtenbach is here with us, the JR Sportbree show on CBS Sports Radio. You know, given given you followed this 49ers team all season long, and now that we're two days away, is there anything that we really need to pay attention to? Any any injuries? Last second updates? I heard a fire alarm went off the other day.

A couple folks up. Well, what's the latest? Yeah, it's all pretty solid for San Francisco right now. The one injury that has some things moving around. And man, I mean, you're really pushing it when you're saying this is a big time injury is Joe Thuney, the left guard for the Kansas City Chiefs.

He's probably not going to play. We're talking about a left guard. Listen, I'm a former offensive lineman. So I respect my left guard.

I was but I respect my left guard. But I mean, Joe Thuney being the name that we're worrying about all week tells you just how healthy the 49ers are going into this game, just how healthy the Chiefs are going into this game, which which only adds to the excitement because you don't want to have two great teams unquestionably great teams. Have this game be decided sort of in the way you remember Super Bowl LV in Tampa was decided when Kansas City just didn't have an offensive line for that game.

And they only scored nine points and Patrick Holmes did his best but that was nowhere near good enough to be Tom Brady in the Buccaneers. I don't think we're going to have a situation like that. I don't think we're going to have anybody coming out of this game saying man, if we only had this guy because they got everybody.

Well, Dieter, I mean, one of the folks that the 49ers do have is Brock Purdy. And we all know his story. A lot of players show him love. And some folks in the media just kind of Yeah, well, he's he's a result of everyone that's around him. Yeah, you've seen him.

You've been around him. What are your thoughts on him overall as a player and as a person? You know who else is a result of all the players around him? Every quarterback who's ever played the game like he is. I'm not going to say he's Patrick Holmes. I'm not going to say he's the next coming of Joe Monte.

I'm not going to say any of them. There are warts and Brock Purdy's game. There are warts and Patrick Holmes is game I should know few, but some every quarterback has flaws. And most of the quarterbacks who reach this stage have something that you can hang your hat on and say they're pretty damn good at this.

Even Jared Goff, you can put that down for even Jimmy Garoppolo, you can put that down for this guy, though, is special. And I don't know how the narrative coming into this week. Last week, after watching that dude put it on his back in the NFC championship game, just do the damn thing in the second half of the NFC championship game, how we're still talking about this guy just sort of being along for the ride.

What have people been watching? I knew going into the playoffs that people aren't like watching Brock Purdy snaps. I know that they're not putting in the work that I have to put in having covered this team on a day to day basis. I understand that.

I can see that point. But when you're watching playoff games and you're seeing this dude leave not one, but two big time late game comebacks, the second of which unprecedented in the history of the NFC playoffs, and we're still talking about it's everybody else but him. Man, the tape tells you the exact opposite story. There have been five quarterbacks that preceded Brock Purdy between Jimmy Garoppolo and him. There have been a lot, of course, seven, eight quarterbacks that Kyle Shanahan has had in San Francisco. He got Jimmy Garoppolo, who, by the way, I don't think has a job next year in the league, certainly not a starting one. He got them to the Super Bowl and they didn't allow him to throw the ball in those playoffs. That was how they got to the Super Bowl.

That was a byproduct of everybody around him. Brock Purdy is taking this, putting the team on his back, having one of the best statistical seasons in the history of the NFL, getting MVP votes, going out there and balling. He had a damn near perfect game a couple of times this year. He was money all season long. He's got it. He's a swashbuckler. He pushes the ball down the field. These narratives about Brock Purdy, people are going to be in for a big surprise if they only heard about Brock Purdy and they finally get to watch him on Sunday because he's pretty much the opposite quarterback of what everyone seems to think he is. And honestly, it's embarrassing that people come out here still peddling this nonsense. I don't care where he got drafted.

The dude can fall. Yeah, the results are there. I don't know too many dudes who just wake up and have the success that he's had in a year and a half, let alone be an MVP candidate.

Dieter Kertenbach is here with us, the JR sport re-show on CBS Sports Radio. We have seen that the 49ers over these past couple of playoff games, there's some slow starts, they're causing people to have minor heart attacks. How do they need to adjust here outside of just starting off a little hotter?

What specifically? I mean, I wish I could get more specific than they can't get high on their own supply going into the Super Bowl. And I think that they, I think that's where they were at. I think that they looked at Green Bay and they looked at Detroit and ultimately the results proved this to be the case. But they just thought, man, we're better than these guys.

This should be a playoff game. We'll have to fight a little bit, but we should, we should roll them. And frankly, they should have, they should have rolled them. And the fact that they were able to win both of those games with how poorly they played for the first three quarters against Green Bay for the first half against Detroit tells you, yeah, they probably should have rolled them the entire game, that they can just turn it on like that and get the dubs.

So I, at home, a little bit of rust, a little bit of rain, a little bit of Vamara St. Brown, like they, they, they, they really, they really put themselves into a corner because I don't think they felt threatened. And they made it maybe needed to challenge themselves a little bit more subconsciously with those two games. If you look at Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelsey, and you're not immediately threatened, if you look at this chief's defense, which is sound, and you're not immediately threatened, if you think, yeah, this should be a walk in the park, man, football is not for you. And this team deserves what they get and they will get got if that's what happens.

Uh, but I don't, I don't sense that to be the case at all. If for no other reason, there's a lot of guys on this team who really want to beat the Kansas City Chiefs in the Superbowl because they were there on the field and they thought they had the Lombardi trophy in their hands with seven minutes to go in the fourth quarter, up by 10 points, third and 15, and it all slipped away. And they have thought about that and they are admitting to it now every day of their life sense. And they got to make right on the promise they've made to themselves that they would, they would get revenge for that.

And it's all set up perfectly for them. If they can't come out hot, they can't come out firing in this game, man, break it all down, end it all because this is as good as it gets for them to come out just raring. Well, well, Dieter, well, you, you see the team, you just bigged up the Chiefs, we know about the defense, the the offense looks like it's it's elevating at the right time. By the time we get to I don't know, you know, Sunday night, Sunday evening, who do you think is going to hoist the Vince Lombardi trophy? I'm taking the Niners, I'm taking them by nine. And I'm telling you right now, it's not about I don't I, I'm telling you flat out, I don't care if the 49ers win or lose.

My job isn't about that. I don't care. It's more interesting for me if they do lose, I can write more stuff. If they win, what's there to write everything that they said they were going to do? They did end of story. If they lose, I get a full offseason 49ers coverage.

So maybe that is what I want to happen. But I'm I'm watching these two teams in the lead up to this. I'm watching every Niner snap.

I've seen every chief snap for the last couple of years now. This Chiefs team was that you got to give him props. They're here. And they're doing it in a way that's very reminiscent of the New England Patriots, in that they went into these three playoff games in the AFC. And they just said, we're not going to lose this game. We're going to let the other team lose this game. We might not win it, but they're going to lose it.

And we're going to make sure we put them in positions where they can lose it. Miami was done the second they walked off that bus. It was minus four degrees outside. And they said, we're done body language.

What body language? They were frozen. I lived in Miami. Let me tell you, I'm still I'm still a wimp about the cold. I grew up in Chicago. I lived in Miami.

You spend a month in Miami and now suddenly if it gets 60 degrees, you're wearing a coat minus four. Hell no. Then you're talking about the Buffalo Bills and the Buffalo Bills came into that game with no defense, the pressure of the world on their shoulders. Biggest game those guys had ever played on that Buffalo Bills team and a one man band as an offense because Stefan Diggs is MIA and Josh Allen. Listen, he tried. He tried and it didn't work out for him because one man bands don't make it in the playoffs very far and he took him as far as they could go. Buffalo also had no pass rush to speak of in that game.

Much less. I mean, no defense, but no pass rush. And then you go up against the Baltimore Ravens who had the weirdest game plan I've ever seen. You got Lamar Jackson, perhaps the greatest runner of the football at the quarterback position in the history of the game. Standing back there for 10 Mississippi every snap trying to, I don't know, be Peyton Manning. That's not your game.

My man, you need to need to do what you are great at. And yeah, you'll have some chances to throw the ball, but take what the defense gives you. They dared Lamar Jackson to beat them with his feet, which just sounds dumb, but I don't know. It worked in the Chiefs scored 17 points and won that game. This notion that Kansas City is some sort of super team is laughable to me.

This is the worst Chiefs team to be in a Super Bowl in the Mahomes era. They got here because the other teams in the AFC beat themselves in Kansas City is too good a team to self implode. They can just stand back and let the other team do it to themselves. The 49ers have that ability, right? The 49ers can come out slow. They can be high on their own supply. They can beat themselves, no doubt about it, but I don't think they're going to.

And I watch it. That's not really their MO. And so I just think that the Niners are markedly better. Everyone's talking Isaiah Pacheco.

I mean, what? He had 2.4 yards per carry against Baltimore. We're talking about Christian McCaffrey. We want to talk about a great running back talking about Rashee Rice. I got Brandon. Now you can be both Samuel for you. You mean Marquez Valdez?

Scantling though is definitely in those guys as classes. I roll my eyes tight end. Travis Kelsey, incredible 10 out of 10. You know who else is a 10 out of 10 George kill and I know a lot of love has been given to the Kansas City defense. I've given a lot of love to the Kansas City defense all year. I've been big on this, but this is a defense first team, but they are sound and not dynamic and the way you beat the 49ers is by being dynamic. That's what we saw on Christmas night with Baltimore. Baltimore is crazy.

You don't know where they're coming from. They got nine guys on the line of scrimmage and they might only rush one or they might find a 10th dude to bring in there and Brock Purdy was I'll say it a little shook. That's not Kansas City's game. They'll blitz you, but they're telling you exactly what they're doing every play and by the way, that's that's true on offense.

Now we talk all the time. Andy Reid two weeks to prepare man. They had to figure out about halfway through the season that the playbook needed to get condensed down to a two page sheet that that's where they're at now. They're telling you what they're going to run by their personnel schemes every time they step on the field. You get those three tight ends on the field.

Guess what? They're running the ball and they're running it up the middle. You take those tight ends off the field, they're passing the ball. I don't think a lot of the 49ers defense compared to the prior time these two teams played. This is a worse defense, but man, if you can't scheme up something against that, I don't know what you're doing in this game. And frankly, I think the benefit of the doubt going to Kansas City because they got to this game overlooking a regular season where they just struggled like hell, but that's all you five of eight and now not given the benefit of the doubt to the 49ers when they kicked ass all regular season.

It's baffling to me. I get it. No one wants to bet against the homes as an underdog. I'm not betting against Brock Purdy and the 49ers on any night. We're gonna find out in two days from now, Dieter.

I'm certainly gonna remember every word you said. I think most of us acknowledge the 49ers are a superior team. I think a lot of us, including me, just look at my homes and go, you know, hey, I'm gonna go with the quarterback, especially if it's a close game.

To wrap things up here, Dieter, you're on KNBR. What is the vibe in the Bay Area? Are people feeling like, hey, we're gonna steamroll them? Are they hesitant? Are they afraid? What's the vibe?

Hesitant and afraid is probably not right, but I think a lot. I think the vast majority of folks that I've talked to in Vegas and certainly in the Bay Area are like you, right? And let's be real about this. The Super Bowl is going to bring out a lot of casuals, and that's great. That's what makes the Super Bowl the spectacle that it is. I like having people who don't watch football all year jump in for this.

And what do they know? They know the Patrick Holmes has been here for out of the last five years, right? They know that he is the man and he will go down as the greatest quarterback who ever lived.

But that doesn't mean he can't lose. And that doesn't mean that this Chiefs team is markedly better. Again, as you said, this 49ers team is a much better team.

Maybe you didn't say much. I'm paraphrasing here, so correct me if I'm wrong, but I think there are much better team than Kansas City. And yes, it is a head coach and a quarterback league.

I just think that everyone's looking at Mr. Irrelevant and saying, well, the homes, Mr. Bell, they're letting these narratives. They're letting this nonsense seep in.

And the tape tells an entirely different story, man. The Chiefs run the offense that everyone thinks the 49ers run just a bunch of dink and dunk kind of run it up the middle. A lot of screen passes. No one runs more screen passes than the Kansas City Chiefs. And the 49ers run the offense that everyone thinks the Chiefs run. They're bombing it deep. They got this crazy play action. They're extending plays with their feet in the back field in the quarterback. I think a lot of people are in for a big surprise because people have not got up on the game with San Francisco 49ers yet or really with the Chiefs yet. And I think a lot of casuals in the sports media ourselves excluded, of course, are leading people the wrong way going into this game. I think it should be fun. I think it's going to be a blast. But again, unless the Niners want to go out there and beat themselves and I just don't get that sense at all from them, they're going to run them. They're going to run them by Niners.

All right. There we have it. Dieter Kertenbach joining us, the JR Sport Reshow on CBS Sports Radio. Dieter, where can people keep up with you and follow your musings on Taylor Swift as well as the 49ers?

San Jose Mercury News and KNBR. I guess you can find me on whatever the hell they're calling that social media site, X, Twitter, whatever. I'll post my stuff there at Dieter, D-I-E-T-E-R. I guess I'm on Threads too. I don't know. If you find me on Threads, let me know because I don't know if anyone's found me there yet.

I'm sure you got a couple of ports from IG that found you over there, Dieter. We'll see. No doubt. No doubt. Thank you, man. Enjoy the game and let's see how things roll. If Brock Purdy and the 49ers win, oh, you're going to have a lot of Brock Purdy stories to write. That's going to be the news. No doubt about it, man. Thanks for having me.

Available early 2024. A peanut butter M&M's production. In a world where Super Bowl winners get the world's admiration and a fancy ring, but the runners up get nothing, one retired cop returns. That's one retired quarterback. Read the script.

Oh, sorry. One retired quarterback returns to claim what's his. Um, that's claim a ring with diamonds made from M&M's peanut butter, but you're on a roll. The Ring of Comfort coming soon to a Super Bowl. I'm Tony and this is the Tony Kornheiser show. Well, that makes it sound a bit more serious than it really is. So what exactly is the show about? It's been almost 30 years and I still don't know.

Right now we have some of the best voices in football come on to explain to us what we need to know in the college and pro world and we get weekly picks from a monkey. Do you really need more than that? I might just tell you about my bunker game and the latest failed entry in my quest to find the best coffee ice cream. No schmutz, please. Listen on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts.