It looked like the San Francisco 49ers end-of-season press conference was about to wrap up. Head coach Kyle Shanahan and general manager John Lynch were about to step away when Shanahan remembered he wanted to say one more thing. While the game didn't end as he hoped, he wanted to acknowledge the presence of The Faithful at SoFi Stadium for Sunday's NFC Championship Game.
"I did want to say one thing because I forgot after the game, and it's not just kissing up to them," Shanahan said. "What our fans did in L.A. was not just the coolest thing for the head coach of the Niners, it was one of the coolest things I've seen in sports, to watch the commitment of a fanbase to try to go take over another stadium, and to watch how hard [the Rams] were trying not to [allow it]."
The Rams tried to keep it from happening to them again. It was just three weeks earlier that The Faithful took over SoFi Stadium the first time, essentially turning it into a Niners home game. The Rams tried to limit ticket sales by region. Players and players' wives pleaded with fans not to sell their tickets.
Still, the 49ers fans found their way to SoFi Stadium, taking it over once again.
"And for me to sit there on Saturday night, and my wife to show me videos of the airport," Shanahan continued, "for my friends to send me videos of the coffee shops, and the streets, and then for me to go in there and see the stadium, it gave me, our players, it gave us chills.
"It was not just cool because I'm the coach. I've never seen that. I've been around sports a long time, and I've been a lot of different places, and I can't tell you guys how cool that was and how much we appreciate it. That's not normal."
Lynch added that it wasn't just at SoFi Stadium. The team appreciated the droves of 49ers fans that showed up at AT&T Stadium against the Dallas Cowboys and at Lambeau Field against the Green Bay Packers.
"It's everywhere we go," Lynch said. "The Faithful is such an appropriate name for what our fanbase is all about, the passion. They stuck with us when things were going rough. Kyle said it really, really well. We're very appreciative, and look forward to seeing that only grow stronger moving forward."