As the Kansas City Chiefs enjoy a victory parade following their Super Bowl LIV win, 49ers players gathered for one last team meeting and to clean out their lockers on Wednesday. They will not return to the facility until the offseason program kicks off.
Will that include Sanders, who arrived mid-season via a trade from the Denver Broncos?
"I enjoyed this season," Sanders told reporters. "I love the Niners organization, so we're going to see what's going to happen. Truthfully, I have no thought process with it right now coming off the Super Bowl loss. I'm just trying to grieve that and enjoy being around the fellas right now.
"At some point, obviously, I've got to switch my mind, thinking about what's to come, and see what could happen. But as of right now, we're just a couple of days removed from losing the Super Bowl, so my mind's not even on that."
One player who would love to have Sanders back is quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo.
"You can't even describe it, what E did, coming in the way he did, never asking for the ball, never doing too much. He was exactly what we needed on this team," Garoppolo said on Wednesday. "That veteran presence for the younger receivers, for just everyone, myself included. Just everything he did, he did it with class and you couldn't ask for a better teammate."
Added Garoppolo: "I would love to have E back. Like I said before, all the good things he did for us, but we'll see what happens. He's one of a kind, love that guy."
Players like tight end George Kittle and Sanders said they finally motivated themselves to watch the Super Bowl this week. It wasn't easy.
"I watched it for the first time last night, and it made it a lot worse," Kittle said via Bay Area News Group. "I've got to watch it for closure. It didn't help me at all. We just didn't make enough plays."
Sanders didn't just re-watch the heartbreaking game once. He did it multiple times.
"I watched the Super Bowl at least five or six times," Sanders said, "and it's like when you watch a movie like the Titanic and hope the ship doesn't sink, and the ship sinks over and over."
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