Jason Johnson will have to continue waiting to see his team to win a Super Bowl title in his lifetime.
“Next year,” he said somewhat hopefully Sunday evening, still processing the San Francisco 49ers’ 25-22 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LVIII. “It was a good game, but unfortunately, I was let down.”
Johnson, 26, a lifelong 49ers fan from Oakland, brought his whole family, including his three young children, out to San Pedro Square Market in San Jose on Sunday night to watch the San Francisco 49ers play in Las Vegas for Super Bowl LVIII.
For the last quarter and most of overtime, one of Jason’s children, Baltimore, just six years old, was leading the packed room in chants of “DE-FENSE” and “Let’s go Niners,” yelling at full volume while perched atop a table.
The enthusiasm turned to disappointment after the Chiefs scored a touchdown in overtime, clinching the game, but the Johnsons were in good company, despite a few tears.
Hundreds of disappointed fans poured into the street, with little fanfare, as the game ended.
Earlier, enthusiasm was high. “Go Niners, do it for the Bay!,” Navii Sandhu exclaimed, as the 49ers prepared to hit the field Sunday afternoon in Las Vegas.
Sandhu and her friends were scanning for an open seat in the crowded San Pedro Square Market, joining hundreds of others who flocked to downtown San Jose for the big game.
A lifelong fan, and San Jose resident, she was confident before the game started. “I’m thinking Purdy is going to bring it home,” she said, a big smile on her face as she referred to 49ers starting quarterback, Brock Purdy. Her girlfriend and two close friends joined her — even though one is a Raiders fan.
Sunday wasn’t the first time she and her friends came to the popular downtown food court to watch a 49ers game; they watched the NFC Championship game here two weeks ago, and she said it was even more crowded for that game.
Her best guess for the smaller crowd on Sunday? “I think we’re chalking it up to everybody went to Vegas,” she said.
Kunal Arora was also at San Pedro Square on Sunday, with three generations of his family. This is his second season as an out-and-proud 49ers fan, abandoning his hometown team the Philadelphia Eagles just last year, after a decade of living in the Bay Area. “I had to switch last year, when we played the Eagles, because this is where I live.”
The stakes were high for Arora: His birthday was last week, and he told his family he wanted to put off celebrating until after watching the 49ers’ fate in Las Vegas.
At San Pedro Social, a sports bar just around the corner, there was a line out the door all afternoon. The crowd erupted in cheers as the 49ers entered the field a few minutes before kickoff, quickly quieting down, punctuated by some boos, as the rival Chiefs players entered the field.
Despite fitting in among the crowd of red-shirts and jerseys from a distance, the message on Taylor Rasmussen’s sweater distinguished her from the crowd wandering down the pedestrian thoroughfare on San Pedro Street.
“World’s Biggest Fan of Taylor Swift’s Boyfriend’s Team,” her sweater read, in contrast to the 49ers garb worn by her boyfriend and nearly everyone else walking by.