The Super Bowl turns 59 this season, and for the first time since 2005 a team will have the opportunity to become the first to win it for a third straight year.
The Kansas City Chiefs are on the clock.
Why hasn’t this happened more often? Why haven’t more teams pulled off the NFL three-peat?
Allow Chiefs coach Andy Reid to supply some analysis.
“It’s hard to get to one, let alone two, let alone get to three,” Reid said. “You’ve got to be sure you’re willing to continue the process ... and it’s a tough process going through to February. You’ve got to make sure you don’t skip any steps.
“Then there’s the players’ side. They’re coming off the physical part of it. Short offseasons. Are you willing to gear it up to that level? ...
“Then you’ve got the injury factor. The ball bouncing the right way. How many close games are there in today’s football? There are going to be twists and turns. How do you handle those?”
Reid also mentioned the league’s modern schedule — and especially the Chiefs’. The NFL took advantage of KC’s popularity and sprinkled the Chiefs’ games over six days of the week during the 2024 season — every one except Tuesday.
The Chiefs will be the first NFL football team to play such a sprawling schedule since the 1927 New York Yankees — not the Yanks of Ruth and Gehrig, mind you, but of Red Grange and Wild Bill Kelly. (The football Yankees played from 1926-29 in the Big Apple. So it’s been a long time.)
How do the Chiefs approach this mixture of odd kickoff times and short rest weeks?
“You have to wear it as a badge of honor,” Reid said.
If the Chiefs pull it off and celebrate a Super Bowl LIX triumph in New Orleans, they will have taken the step that other great NFL teams could not.
Eight others, led by some of the greatest coaches and players in football history, have reached this point. None even so much as reached the Super Bowl in a third year.
Those teams:
- 1969 Green Bay Packers
- 1974 Miami Dophins
- 1976 Pittsburgh Steelers
- 1980 Pittsburgh Steelers
- 1990 San Francisco 49ers
- 1993 Dallas Cowboys
- 1999 Denver Broncos
- 2005 New England Patriots
Here are five reasons Super Bowl three-peats have been so rarely achieved, and whether any of those factors apply to the Chiefs’ chances this season:
1. Head-coaching change
Had the Super Bowl started one year earlier, the Green Bay Packers may have three-peated right out of the gate. But the 1965 season, capped by the Packers’ defeat of the Browns in the NFL Championship Game, was the last without a Super Bowl.
Green Bay went on to win the first two Super Bowls — called NFL-AFL Championship Games at the time — and then coach Vince Lombardi retired to a general manager’s role. The aging Packers weren’t the same. Over the next quarter-century they reached the playoffs only twice.
The Dallas Cowboys were dominant in two consecutive Super Bowl victories over the Buffalo Bills after the 1993 and 1994 seasons. After the second one, the rift between owner Jerry Jones and coach Jimmy Johnson became irreparable, and they parted ways. Barry Switzer took over and the Cowboys lost in the NFC Championship Game before winning their third Super Bowl in four years the following season.
Apply to Chiefs?
Not at all. Reid, fending off retirement rumors each of the past two years, signed a contract extension after last season. It runs through 2029.
2. Quarterback change
With back-to-back Super Bowl titles under their belts, the Denver Broncos became the first team to bid for a three-peat with a new quarterback when John Elway retired after the 1998 season. “I can’t do it physically anymore,” he said then. “I just can’t compete at the level where I want to compete anymore.”
The Broncos weren’t the same in 1999. Brian Griese took over and the Broncos stumbled to a 6-10 showing.
Apply to Chiefs?
Uh, no. Patrick Mahomes is not only back, but at age 28 — he’ll turn 29 on Sept. 17 — he is approaching the prime years of his already dazzling pro career. The first question he fielded about a three-peat came less than 24 hours after the Chiefs had defeated the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl LVIII.
“No one’s ever done it,” Mahomes said. “We knew it was legendary to win back to back. ... All you can do is come back with a fresh mindset, knowing it will be even harder.”
3. Coordinator(s) change
Seven years into their existence, the Miami Dolphins won the first of two straight Super Bowls, defeating Washington before dominating the Minnesota Vikings in Super Bowl VIII. The Dolphins’ key players — Bob Griese, Larry Csonka, Paul Warfield and Mercury Morris — returned. But Miami had lost both of its coordinators: offensive coordinator Howard Schnellenberger became head coach of the Colts and defensive guru Bill Arnsparger took over the New York Giants.
Miami’s quest for a three-peat ended in the 1974 Divisional Round against Oakland Raiders.
The Patriots’ one shot at three-peat came in 2005, but the New England coaching staff wasn’t the same after defensive coordinator Romeo Crennel left to become the Cleveland Browns’ head coach and Charlie Weis looked to shape his offense on the college level at Notre Dame (both men would also later work with the pre-Reid Chiefs.)
Apply to Chiefs?
The Chiefs won Super Bowls in 2019 and 2022 with Eric Bieniemy as their offensive coordinator. Matt Nagy took over last season (re-hired by Reid after a previous stint with Reid and Mahomes in KC) and the Chiefs marched to another title. Three of current KC defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo’s four Super Bowl rings have come with the Chiefs.
4. Injuries to stars
The 1976 Steelers opened the season 1-4 before playing one of the most amazing stretches of defense in NFL history: They surrendered 28 points over the final nine games and steamrolled the Baltimore Colts in the AFC Divisional Round.
But Steelers running backs Franco Harris and Rocky Bleier were injured in that game and thus unavailable for the AFC Championship Game. The Oakland Raiders prevailed 24-7.
The 1990 San Francisco 49ers, meanwhile, were clinging to a narrow lead over the New York Giants in the NFC Championship Game at Candlestick Park when defensive end Leonard Marshall knocked Niners superstar Joe Montana out of the contest in the third quarter.
Backup Steve Young couldn’t get the 49ers on the scoreboard and the Giants pulled off a 15-13 upset.
Apply to Chiefs?
Fortune smiled on the Chiefs during their 2022 Super Bowl quest. Not so much last season, when they lost guard Joe Thuney in the AFC Divisional Round victory over the Buffalo Bills and defensive end Charles Omenihu in an AFC title-game victory over the Baltimore Ravens.
But the Chiefs had developed excellent depth and worked through the absences.
5. Advancing age
The Packers were getting long in the tooth in 1969, and also lost Lombardi. The 1980 Steelers, bidding to complete a handful of rings in a “one for the thumb” quest created by Mean Joe Green, were wearing down after four Super Bowl titles in six years.
Pittsburgh’s stellar run had been fueled by many of the same superstars — the likes of Greene, Terry Bradshaw, Franco Harris, Mel Blount, Lynn Swann, Jack Lambert and John Stallworth. The Steelers dropped three of their final five games to finish 9-7 and miss the playoffs for the first time since 1971.
Apply to Chiefs?
Travis Kelce will turn 35 in October. Chris Jones is 30. But the Chiefs project to have one of the NFL’s youngest rosters in average age this season.
Kelce and Jones recently were ranked among the NFL’s top 10 players for 2023 by their peers. Don’t expect a drop in performance this season.
Three-peat bids in NFL history
GREEN BAY PACKERS
- 1967, Super Bowl I: Green Bay Packers 35, Kansas City Chiefs 10
- 1968, Super Bowl II: Green Bay Packers 33, Oakland Raiders 14
- 1969: missed playoffs
MIAMI DOLPHINS
- 1972, Super Bowl VII: Dolphins 14, Washington Redskins 7
- 1973, Super Bowl VIII: Dolphins 24, Minnesota Vikings 7
- 1974: lost to Oakland Raiders 28-26 in Divisional Round
PITTSBURGH STEELERS, TAKE I
- 1974, Super Bowl IX: Steelers 16, Minnesota Vikings 6
- 1975, Super Bowl X: Steelers 21, Dallas Cowboys 17
- 1976: lost to Raiders 24-7 in AFC Championship Game
PITTSBURGH STEELERS, TAKE II
- 1978, Super Bowl XIII: Steelers 35, Dallas Cowboys 31
- 1979, Super Bowl XIV: Steelers 31, Los Angeles Rams 19
- 1980: missed playoffs
SAN FRANCISCO 49ERS
- 1988, Super Bowl XXIII: 49ers 20, Cincinnati Bengals 16
- 1989, Super Bowl XXIV: 49ers 55, Denver Broncos 10
- 1990: lost to Giants 15-13 in NFC Championship Game
DALLAS COWBOYS
- 1993, Super Bowl XXVII: Cowboys 52, Buffalo Bills 17
- 1994, Super Bowl XXVII: Cowboys 30, Buffalo Bills 13
- 1995: lost to 49ers 38-28 in NFC Championship Game
DENVER BRONCOS
- 1997, Super Bowl XXXII: Broncos 31, Packers 24
- 1998, Super Bowl XXXIII: Broncos 34, Atlanta Falcons 19
- 1999: missed playoffs
NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS
- 2003, Super Bowl XXXVIII: Patriots 32, Carolina Panthers 29
- 2004, Super Bowl XXXIX: Patriots 24, Philadelphia Eagles 21
- 2005: lost to Denver Broncos 27-13 in Divisional Round
KANSAS CITY CHIEFS
- 2022, Super Bowl LVII: Chiefs 38, Philadelphia Eagles 35
- 2023, Super Bowl LVIII: Chiefs 25, 49ers 22 (OT)
- 2024: Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans, TBD
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