Bill Belichick’s numbers guru Ernie Adams says 49ers should have kicked in Super Bowl OT

Ernie Adams has rarely talked publicly, but behind the scenes he was viewed as a key contributor to the Patriots' Super Bowl titles as one of Bill Belichick's most trusted advisors. And Adams has now spoken publicly about this year's Super Bowl, and the correct strategy for overtime.Adams, who was a municipal bonds trader before spending 25 years working as Belichick's director of football research, appeared on Julian Edelman's podcast and said that as soon as the 49ers and Chiefs headed to overtime in Super Bowl LVIII, Adams texted Belichick to discuss strategy."My text I sent to Bill right then is: This is the first time in the National Football League history the right call on winning the coin toss is, 'We want to kick. We want to kick. We want to go on defense first,'" Adams said, via MassLive.com. "The big reason: You know what you need and you know that you're in four-down territory all the way because if it comes up fourth down, you can go for it. If you know you're going to be going for it on fourth down, that changes the way you can call the game on first, second and third down."That's not what 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan thought. Shanahan chose to receive at the start...