New mic’d up Super Bowl footage makes 49ers’ decision look even worse.

Fred Warner of the San Francisco 49ers and Patrick Mahomes of the Kansas City Chiefs stand at midfield for the coin toss for overtime during Super Bowl LVIII at Allegiant Stadium on February 11, 2024 in Las Vegas.

New mic’d up video released by the NFL makes the San Francisco 49ers’ doomed overtime decision look even worse.

With the game tied 19-19 at the end of regulation, the 49ers and Kansas City Chiefs headed to the first Super Bowl with new overtime rules. Instead of sudden-death overtime, both teams would now have a chance to possess the ball, even if the first team to go on offense scored a touchdown. The 49ers, to the shock of just about everyone watching, elected to take the ball first — meaning they’d potentially give the Chiefs the last chance.

As fans know now, this was the worst call coach Kyle Shanahan could have made. The 49ers only mustered a field goal, and Patrick Mahomes led the Chiefs down the field for a touchdown, sealing the victory for Kansas City.

The NFL’s newly released “Mic’d Up” version of the game is painful to watch for 49ers fans. As the new overtime rules are shown on video screens around the stadium, fullback Kyle Juszczyk comments, “Even if we score a touchdown, they still get the ball. I didn’t know that.” On the 49ers bench, someone can be heard saying, “We score a touchdown, we win.”

No, no,” linebacker Fred Warner corrects him. “Both teams get an opportunity.”

It seems even the referees would have strategized differently. With about two minutes left in regulation and the ball in quarterback Brock Purdy’s hands, mics caught referee Bill Vinovich commenting on the 49ers’ play-calling. “Your best play that you have in your book right now,” he said. “Cause you don’t wanna give Mahomes the ball back.”

After the game, the 49ers infuriated fans by publicly admitting they didn’t know overtime rules had changed.

“I didn’t even know about the new playoff overtime rule, so it was a surprise to me,” defensive lineman Arik Armstead said. “I didn’t even really know what was going on in terms of that.”

You know what? I didn’t even realize the playoff rules were different in overtime,” Juszczyk added. “I assumed you just want the ball to score a touchdown and win. I guess that’s not the case. I don’t totally know the strategy there.”

Although players said they never discussed the rule change, Shanahan told reporters in the postgame press conference that coaches had.

Although hindsight is 20/20, Shanahan’s catastrophic decision even flummoxed his lucky opponents. “There’s no situation where it makes sense to me,” Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce said on his “New Heights” podcast Wednesday.

“You win the coin toss, that’s what you get. You get the opportunity to have the advantage,” he added with a laugh. “And they handed it right over to us.”