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Super Bowl XXIX

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Super Bowl XXIX

Super Bowl XXIX was an American football championship game featuring an all-California matchup between the American Football Conference (AFC) champion San Diego Chargers and the National Football Conference (NFC) champion San Francisco 49ers to decide the National Football League (NFL) champion for the 1994 season. The 49ers defeated the Chargers by a score of 49–26, the most points ever earned in a Super Bowl game, becoming the first team to win five Super Bowl championships. The game was played on January 29, 1995, at Joe Robbie Stadium in Miami, Florida. As of 2025, this is the last Super Bowl to feature two teams from the same state.

This game is regarded as 49ers quarterback Steve Young's final leap out of the shadow of his predecessor, Joe Montana, who had won four Super Bowls with the 49ers (in 1981, 1984, 1988, and 1989), two with Young as the backup quarterback. With Young at the helm, and a defense consisting of several veteran free agents who joined the team during the previous offseason, San Francisco finished the regular season with a league-best 13–3 record, and led the league in total points scored (505). The Chargers, on the other hand, were regarded as a "Cinderella" team, and advanced to their first Super Bowl after posting an 11–5 regular-season record and overcoming halftime deficits in both of their playoff wins.

This was the first Super Bowl in which both teams scored in all four quarters. The combined aggregate score of 75 points and the ten total touchdowns both remain Super Bowl records. Still, the 49ers controlled most of the game, with Young completing touchdown passes in each of the 49ers' first two drives. The Chargers were able to cut the deficit late in the first quarter, 14–7, on a 13-play, 78-yard drive, but could not slow down San Francisco afterwards. Young was named the Super Bowl MVP, throwing a Super Bowl-record six touchdown passes, and completing 24 out of 36 passes for 325 yards.

Despite the predicted blowout (18.5-point is the second largest margin a team has been favored by in a Super Bowl), the fact that San Diego did not have as much national appeal nor a relatively large core fan base, and two teams from California playing, which could have significantly diminished interest along the East Coast, the telecast of the game on ABC still had a Nielsen rating of 41.3.

NFL owners voted to award Super Bowl XXIX to Miami during their May 23, 1991 meeting in Minneapolis. Three cities presented bids: Miami (Joe Robbie Stadium), Tampa (Tampa Stadium), and Houston (Astrodome). New Orleans pulled out of the running early on due to conflicts with other conventions. Houston was considered an early favorite, since they had not hosted the game since 1974. However, the Astrodome would need to add approximately 10,000 temporary seats in order to meet the NFL's capacity requirement of 70,000.

Rules required a candidate to receive a 34 vote (21 of 28 owners) in order to win the bidding. Tampa was eliminated on the first ballot, having just hosted XXV, along with their lack of premium seating. Then neither Miami nor Houston managed to get 21 votes on the second ballot or on the third ballot. For the fourth ballot, the threshold was reduced to a simple majority. In what was said to be a close vote, Miami was selected as the host. It marked the seventh time overall the Miami-area hosted the Super Bowl, and the second time it was played in Joe Robbie Stadium.

The Chargers were the biggest surprise of the 1994 season, with very few expecting them to even reach the playoffs, let alone the Super Bowl.

San Diego suffered losing seasons in the 1980s until former Washington Redskins general manager Bobby Beathard joined the team in 1990. Beathard decided to rebuild the Chargers using the same model that he used to build the Redskins into Super Bowl contenders during the 1980s: a powerful running game built around big linemen, a passing game that helped sustain extremely long drives, and a bending but steady defense. After former Georgia Tech head coach Bobby Ross was hired by the Chargers in 1992, the team won the AFC West with an 11–5 regular season record and won an opening round playoff game against Kansas City. But in 1993, they slumped back to 8–8 and did not reach the postseason.

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