When he retired after the 2019 NFL season, Mike Person said he didn’t know if he’d ever truly get over Super Bowl LIV, the game in which he and the 49ers had glory snatched from them during a fourth-quarter rally by Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs.
Now that he’s on the outside looking in, last fall was decidedly different for Person, a Glendive native and former standout offensive lineman at Montana State. For the first time in years, his life wasn’t consumed by football preparation.
And though time can heal certain wounds, an athlete’s competitive desire never truly subsides.