The 49ers' linebacker tandem of Fred Warner and Dre Greenlaw share a bond that goes well beyond the football field.
But during Super Bowl LVIII in the biggest game of their lives, Warner was without Greenlaw on the field after the latter went down with a torn Achilles in the second quarter of San Francisco's 25-22 overtime loss to the Kansas City Chiefs.
After the loss, Warner detailed the devastation he felt seeing his friend and teammate be dealt such a harsh blow.
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"I'm sick to my stomach; I'm still sick," Warner told reporters. "I see him at halftime, and I'm crying because I was just so hurt for him and obviously wanting to win this for him. Sickening. ...
"I saw him at halftime, saw him, obviously, towards the end of the game when he was out there on the sideline. Horrible."
Greenlaw injured himself as he was running back onto the field following a good play by the 49ers' punt coverage team. As he entered the field, his left leg gave out and he went to the ground. Warner said it's the same Achilles Greenlaw has been dealing with for a few weeks, and he knew exactly what had happened when his teammate went down.
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After the game, coach Kyle Shanahan confirmed Greenlaw tore his Achilles on the non-contact injury. His other teammates were hurting for him, too, and tight end George Kittle echoed Warner's pain for Greenlaw after the loss.
"That's depressing," Kittle told reporters after the game. "I mean, to get injured in the Super Bowl. Hopefully he hits up Aaron Rodgers and figures out how to heal that quickly. Besides that, Dre's the heartbeat of our defense, him and Fred in there. I know they feed off each other. ...
"But when you lose a guy like Dre, it's tough, and he's such a fantastic football player and he's everything that the Niners stand for, so to lose him, it just really, really sucks for him."
Nick Bosa described Greenlaw's injury as "hard," though the defensive end commended the 49ers for playing through the heartbreaking feeling of empathy for their teammate.
"Sometimes when things like that happen, it could sway the momentum because it's such an emotional feeling," Bosa told reporters after the loss. "But I do think we did a good job of continuing to play the way we were playing. Dre is [a] one-of-one human being.
"He was pushing through so much this year, and I think 99 percent of players wouldn't have been able to do what he did, and he put his body on the line for this. Sucks that we couldn't get him one."
Greenlaw was an instrumental piece to San Francisco even reaching Super Bowl LVIII, with his stellar regular-season play and two-interception performance against the Green Bay Packers in the NFC divisional-round playoff. And with his future up in the air, it's clear he'll have plenty of support from his 49ers teammates as he recovers.
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