Are the Chiefs inevitable enough to pull off NFL history’s first Super Bowl 3-peat?
The Chiefs’ run for their third consecutive title officially begins on Saturday afternoon.
The Kansas City Chiefs are a very good football team. You know this.
The Kansas City Chiefs are looking for their third Super Bowl win in a row. I’d imagine you were aware of this as well.
For almost an entire year now, if that is not obvious, we have known and been anticipating the Chiefs beginning to make a run at history (as if they haven’t made enough already). Kansas City has had an, um, unique season so far in that they have been as inevitable as ever while looking weaker than any past version of themselves, a weird mix of the Of Course nature that they have carried for over a half-decade now.
From a factual perspective, the Chiefs have won the last two Super Bowls, won Super Bowl LIV in Miami three years before the first consecutive win in 2023, and have played in four of the last five.
- Super Bowl LIV, 2020: Kansas City Chiefs beat San Francisco 49ers
- Super Bowl LV, 2021: Kansas City Chiefs lose to Tampa Bay Buccaneers
- Super Bowl LVI, 2022: Kansas City Chiefs not present
- Super Bowl LVII, 2023: Kansas City Chiefs beat Philadelphia Eagles
- Super Bowl LVIII 2024: Kansas City Chiefs beat San Francisco 49ers
It is an insane run that they are on and it’s historic as noted. While they have accomplished a great deal, something they haven’t done is win three Super Bowls in a row.
The thing about that is... nobody has done that.
Across NFL history there have been eight other teams who were searching for a third title in a row.
- 1968 Green Bay Packers: Missed playoffs
- 1974 Miami Dolphins: Lost in Divisional Round
- 1976 Pittsburgh Steelers: Lost AFC Championship Game
- 1980 Pittsburgh Steelers: Missed playoffs
- 1990 San Francisco 49ers: Lost NFC Championship Game
- 1994 Dallas Cowboys: Lost NFC Championship Game
- 1999 Denver Broncos: Missed playoffs
- 2005 New England Patriots: Lost in Divisional Round
Of the eight previous instances there are three teams who missed the playoffs entirely, and obviously that does not apply to the one-seeded Chiefs who even had a bye through the Wild Card round.
Of the remaining five, there were two teams who won a playoff game (interestingly none of these lost in the Wild Card Round) but lost in the Divisional Round. The final three who each came the closest all fell one game shy of history as the 1976 Steelers, 1990 49ers and 1994 Cowboys each lost their conference’s championship game.
No team in NFL history searching for three titles in a row has even made the Super Bowl, so Kansas City can make history if they do just that. Clearly though the Chiefs want to take home that third title and as it has never happened across 58 Super Bowls to date it seems fair to say that this would be something that would likely never be achieved ever again.
Consider the last instances in which three consecutive titles were won in the other major American sports leagues:
- NBA: 2000-2002 (Los Angeles Lakers)
- MLB: 19998-2000 (New York Yankees)
- NHL: 1980-1983 (New York Islanders)
There have been instances in each league of a team winning back-to-back titles since then, but none of a team winning three straight. Basically, the Chiefs can do something that has not only never been done in NFL history, but that hasn’t been done in modern American sports history at large in over 20 years.
We have obviously known all of this from the moment that the Chiefs lifted the Lombardi last February, but Saturday marks the first time that it legitimately hangs in the balance. Unlike any point across the regular season... the effort falls short if the Chiefs lose at any point. The run truly begins now.
Get ready.