Ex-49ers Superstar Spills The Beans On Brutal Colin Kaepernick Decision That Cost Them a Super Bowl

This article was originally published on Total Pro Sports.

The San Francisco 49ers had a strong chance at winning Super Bowl 47 in 2013, until the Baltimore Ravens stopped them in New Orleans. The game featured Jim and John Harbaugh on the sidelines, with the latter winning the matchup, 34-31, to earn his first Super Bowl ring.

That Super Bowl had everything, including a power outage at halftime. Both teams threw punches until the end, but the Ravens secured the win in the final seconds with a defensive stop. Despite completing a safety with four seconds left, the offense didn’t have the time to find the end zone.

Several details went into the final result of the game. Some blamed Jim Harbaugh’s play-calling for costing his team the game. Colin Kaepernick had a strong game (16 of 28 for 302 yards and one touchdown, to go along with seven carries for 62 yards and one touchdown), but leaning too much on him hurt the team’s chances.

Jim Harbaugh Admitted He Made A Colin Kaepernick Mistake During Super Bowl 47

Former 49ers player Delanie Walker joined the “Bussin’ With the Boys” podcast this week. He revealed that Jim Harbaugh admitted to making a mistake during that Super Bowl. He prioritized Kaepernick’s chances to win the MVP instead of giving the ball to running back Frank Gore.

“How I saw it, he wanted Colin Kaepernick to get MVP of the Super Bowl,” Walker said. “That was the mindset that Harbaugh had when he thought about throwing the ball 3 times, because if you do go back and look at our run game, they couldn’t stop Frank Gore. After the game, Jim Harbaugh comes in (to the locker room) and says, ‘That’s on me.’ He probably realized we should have run the ball at that moment.”

LaMichael James ran for two yards and put the 49ers at the Ravens’ 5-yard line. Then, Kaepernick tried to connect three times with Michael Crabtree, but all the passes were incomplete. They added two more points then, but it was too late to try something else.

Harbaugh tried to help Kaepernick get an NFL job after his fallout, but perhaps a Super Bowl would have helped him more.