CEO Jed York credits 49ers’ Super Bowl rise to Kyle Shanahan, John Lynch

49ers CEO Jed York can relate to Andy Dufresne.

Dufresne, of course, was the lead character in the film “Shawshank Redemption” who escaped prison by slogging through 500 yards of sewage to freedom, eventually ending up a free man living on a desolate beach in Mexico.

York’s beach is winning a championship, which could be upcoming for the 49ers in two weeks when they play the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LIV in Miami.

“Everybody wants to get to that beach at the end,” York said in a rare media scrum with Bay Area reporters Friday. “No one wants to go through what he went through to get to the beach. And we had to get through that.”

York was referencing the seasons after the team’s last trip to the Super Bowl following 2012, which included the “mutual” parting with head coach Jim Harbaugh following 2014 a year removed from three straight trips to the conference championship game and the loss to the Baltimore Ravens and Harbaugh’s brother, John, in the Super Bowl.

“I am happy for our fans,” York said Friday. “Being in the Super Bowl seven years ago doesn’t seem that long, except for the kind of deep valley that we went into between. But I’m so appreciative of them and happy for them that they get to see the team getting back to the Super Bowl.”

49ers went through 4 coaches in 4 years

The 49ers since Harbaugh went through four coaches in four years. And from 2015 to 2018, only the Cleveland Browns (11-52-1) had a worse combined record than York’s team (17-47).

This year, San Francisco became the third team in NFL history to reach the Super Bowl after having four or fewer wins the previous season.

York credited the partnership between Shanahan and his hand-picked general manager, John Lynch, for instilling the culture that helped the team overcome its string of losing back toward championship contention. Shanahan and Lynched received matching six-year contracts when they were hired in February 2017.

The length of the deals, York said, was to allow them two years to build the foundation for long-term sustainability.

“It was just clear that we had the vision in sync and knowing it’s a six year deal, but to me it was really two years of fixing what we needed to fix and knowing that this is year one of a four-year deal,” York said.

Shanahan appreciated York’s willingness to offer the security of a lengthy contract despite Shanahan’s inexperience as a head coach. He was an offensive coordinator for the previous nine seasons for four teams, the Houston Texans, Washington, Cleveland and Atlanta Falcons, whom he went to the Super Bowl with following the 2016 season before coming to San Francisco.

“He said he was very committed to try and turn this around, which I think everyone’s pretty committed to turning things around, but I always say you want to do it the right way, which is not a quick fix,” Shanahan said. “If you’re doing the right thing, you’re still going to make some wrong decisions, and you’ve got to be able to weather that storm. It’s very, very tough in this day and age where everything’s critiqued, there’s articles on everything.”

One of San Francisco’s top players, tight end George Kittle, said he appreciates York’s hands-off approach to his stewardship.

“He’s awesome,” the All-Pro said. “One thing I love about him, he doesn’t force his presence on us. He says, ‘Hey, I’m here for you guys if you ever need me. I’m supporting you. I’m your guys’ biggest fan. If you ever need anything, I’m always here to help,’ but he never forces things on guys. I love that about him, and I have the utmost respect for him and how he handles this organization.”

The 49ers being one of the NFL’s top teams, finishing with a 13-3 record and going to the Super Bowl, was a surprise to many entering the season.

But York said he thought a championship run may have been a possibility when the team used the No. 2 pick in the draft on Ohio State defensive end Nick Bosa, who had 9.0 sacks and was named to the Pro Bowl. He also recorded three sacks in his first two playoff games.

“When we were able to draft Nick, I thought this was possible,” York said. “And that was something that was really, really important for Kyle was to have a Super Bowl caliber defensive line. And when you bring Dee (Ford) in through trade/free agency and you’re fortunate enough to have a player there like Nick when you’re drafting second, then you knew you had a chance. That’s kind of when it sort of hit for me.”

49ers faced valleys

It hasn’t been easy for York or the rest of the organization to bounce back from the “valleys” he referenced.

York in the past admitted to making mistakes by hiring Jim Tomsula to replace Harbaugh, and then going with Chip Kelly a season later. Kelly went 2-14 and York fired him and general manager Trent Baalke. It allowed him to hire Shanahan and Lynch at the same time.

The two have worked in concert and are reaping the rewards with the club’s seventh trip to the Super Bowl.

“I think so much comes back to culture,” York said. “So when we talk about the things we want to do, the things that my uncle (Eddie DeBartolo Jr.) wanted and the things I saw in building a championship caliber organization, that’s what Kyle saw from Mike (Shanahan). That’s what John knew growing up and what he saw from people. It isn’t so much easier when you come from a very similar background of this is how we want to do things.”

York a defining moment of their tenure happened midway through their second season, when they decided to release 2017 first-round draft pick Reuben Foster, a talented linebacker who had a string of arrests, including two domestic violence allegations from his girlfriend.

“I love Reuben. I wish that Reuben was still here,” said York. “We gave Reuben opportunities. We’ve given a lot of guys opportunities, but set our limit and said if we can’t fix this, we have to move on from a talented player. I don’t know that that would have been the case with every other coach or every other general manager, not just here but everywhere across the league, because it’s hard to give up on talent. That, to me, is one of the defining moments of John and Kyle to be able to say this is a first-round pick in our first year, and we moved on from it and it was hard.”

Shanahan noted there was a good-cop, bad-cop dynamic between him and Lynch, who’s called “Captain America” around team headquarters for his affability. Shanahan considers himself a fiery competitor who can allow emotions to take over.

Him and Lynch provide a good balance, though York doesn’t necessarily view it the same way.

“Kyle’s not the bad — he’s the direct cop,” he said. “I think Kyle’s very direct when he talks to players, when he talks to coaches, when he talks to media, when he talks to anybody. ‘This is the standard’ and we know what we signed up for with the 49ers. We know what the standard and if we want to achieve that standard.”

The standard, of course, is winning a sixth Super Bowl.