Mahomes does it to Niners. Again.

The Super Bowl. Again. The Kansas City Chiefs. Again. Patrick Mahomes. Again. Heartbreak for Northern California. Again.

This is the fact of sports: Sometimes the other guy is better. Sometimes the other team is better.

You train and work out. You try your hardest. And you lose.

So much excitement. So many dreams of glory. And then defeat. That’s the way it went for guys facing Roger Federer. Or women facing Serena Williams. Or NFL teams facing Mahomes in the biggest games.

No ifs. No might-haves. No, “They got all the good breaks.”

No blaming the offensive line or the fact that an injury caused Dre Greenlaw to miss the entire second half. Just Chiefs, 25, San Francisco, 22, Sunday in Super Bowl LVIII, at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.

“Two good teams facing each other,” Niners coach Kyle Shanahan said honestly and sadly.

And the 49ers weren’t quite as good as Kansas City because of Patrick Mahomes at quarterback.

“He can pass, and he can run,” affirmed Niners linebacker Fred Warner.

Most of all he can beat you.

The Niners went far this season, and won the NFC Championship. But for Niner fans who carry in their head reminders of the glory days of the 1980s, that’s not far enough.

Strange, so strange, and so perplexing. This time the San Francisco defense was king. For a while. Until Mahomes, virtually unstoppable, knocked away the crown.

The anticipation kept growing as the Niners kept advancing. The Bay Area’s television stations were relentless in the promotion. Overkill is a way of life in the media.

America’s so-called favorite city and the city’s favorite sports franchise. Add in the bright lights and myths of Vegas, and well isn’t that a bit of perfection?

Yes, until game time. Until the Niners had trouble scoring and until Mahomes — the necessary evil in this plot — got up and lifted Kansas City.

“Tom Brady and Patrick Mahomes are great players,” said Shanahan, who, when he was an assistant at Atlanta lost a lead in the Super Bowl to Brady, and as head coach of the Niners, has lost two leads and two Super Bowls to Mahomes.

He didn’t blame his guys, whether second-year quarterback Brock Purdy or veteran running back Christian McCaffrey, the offensive player of the year, or the special teams for a missed extra point. Which in the end didn’t really matter.

He simply gave credit to that quarterback, Mahomes, who produced a great ending for the Chiefs and a miserable one for the Niners and their followers.

“We are all hurting,” said Shanahan. Again.