The Kansas City Chiefs are trying to do something no team has ever done: win three straight Super Bowls.
The rest of the NFL is trying to stop them.
Here are the key elements of the Chiefs’ success, which will again play a role in their quest — and could provide clues to how other teams can unseat the kings of the NFL.
Other story in series: Defensive genius of Steve Spagnuolo
Of all the Super Bowls that are difficult to win, Tom Brady will tell you it’s always the next one that feels like it’s the hardest to pull off.
He would know. He made it to 10 of them, won seven, and is the standard that Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs are currently chasing. Brady can break down all of those wins and losses for you. He can tell you about the litany of moments that had to break just right to transform a loss to an overtime win against the Atlanta Falcons in Super Bowl LI. He can also recount the Patriots’ 2007 team that went 18-0 and was 75 seconds from being stamped as one of the greatest championship seasons by any professional franchise. But that 75 seconds included an Eli Manning sack that was never completed, and a David Tyree helmet-catch that went down as one of the greatest plays in NFL history. And just like that, the Patriots were denied a significant winning moment in history.
Of course, it wasn’t the first time. Just two years earlier, in the 2005 season, New England had the same opportunity that the Kansas City Chiefs find themselves chasing this season: The elusive Super Bowl three-peat. Since 1968, seven franchises have had the barrier-breaking moment in their hands eight times (the Steelers twice). And eight times they failed, including Brady’s Patriots, who couldn’t pull off a third straight Super Bowl win after capturing titles in the 2003 and 2004 seasons.
The reasons why? Well, Brady can spell it out in a lot of different things. Injuries happen. Bad drafts and late picks in every round undercut a team in the midst of the chase. Coaches and players leave. The schedule is hard. The list goes on. But as Brady tells it, winning just one is hard to do. Now multiply that by three straight.
“An NFL season is a marathon,” Brady told Yahoo Sports. “And to have so many things go right over the course of a long season in terms of injuries, balls bouncing the right way, hitting teams at the right time, getting the right playoff position — and then you make it to the playoffs and you’ve got to have the same thing happen. You’ve got to get the right breaks. You’ve got to hit the team at the right time.”
“It’s hard enough to win one Super Bowl,” Brady said. “It’s really hard to win two. To win three in a row? There’s a reason why no one has ever done it.”
There are many different reasons nobody has done it. All you need to do is take a walk through history and pop the hood of the eight previous failed attempts. So we did that.
And here’s what we found about the eight failed attempts that a Super Bowl winning three-peat, and the fatal flaws that undercut history.
Fatal flaw that ended it: Legendary head coach Vince Lombardi stepping aside to put all of his energy into his general manager job. Unquestionably the biggest coaching change shocker in NFL history, after the Packers won the league’s first two Super Bowls. Lombardi’s hand-chosen replacement, Phil Bengtson, failed to deliver his predecessor’s magic from the start. Despite returning all of their starters on offense and defense, the Packers went 6-7-1 and struggled horribly at converting field goals following the retirement of Pro Bowl kicker Don Chandler after the 1967 season. Lombardi’s coaching likely could have made the difference in the Packers’ tie and three losses by a total of nine points. Instead, Green Bay missed the playoffs and the first Super Bowl three-peat opportunity in NFL history went down in flames. (To be fair, the Packers won the final NFL championship before the advent of the Super Bowl, so technically they did win three straight league titles.)
Fatal flaws that ended it: Drama, injuries and a critical play that didn’t go their way. The World Football League was launched to compete with the NFL and two of Miami’s stars — fullback Larry Csonka and running back Jim Kiick — were leaving the Dolphins after the 1974 season to join it. The only problem? This was known during the 1974 campaign, and star wideout Paul Warfield would end up joining them in the WFL draft. Imagine that kind of distraction on a modern-day NFL team that was pushing for a three-peat. Beyond that drama, injuries also disrupted the flow of the offense with running back Mercury Morris and wideout Marlin Briscoe both missing a significant number of games with issues. And finally, the Dolphins fell victim to the Oakland Raiders 28-26 in the divisional round of the playoffs — losing on the infamous “Sea of Hands” play with less than 30 seconds left, when Ken Stabler somehow stumbled out of a sack and threw up an 8-yard prayer that Clarence Davis caught between two Miami defenders.
1976 Pittsburgh Steelers
Fatal flaws that ended it: Injuries at the wrong time and running into a red-hot Oakland Raiders team on the road in the AFC title game. The Steelers went into Oakland without their top two rushers due to injuries — Franco Harris and Rocky Bleier — and the offense never got traction in a 24-7 loss. Harris and Bleier were basically the entire spine of the Steelers’ offense, combining for 2,609 yards rushing and receiving during the regular season. And as it turned out, the Steelers ran into a historically good Raiders team that ultimately went 16-1 (13-1 in the regular season and 3-0 in the postseason) and won the Super Bowl.
1980 Pittsburgh Steelers
Fatal flaws that ended it: Age and holes on the roster. Neither the offense or defense was as good as the previous two seasons. Quarterback Terry Bradshaw led an effective passing game, but was beginning the decline of his early 30s in an era when your early 30s was a slippery slope for quarterbacks. Leading rushing centerpieces Franco Harris and Rocky Bleier were both on the wrong side of 30 and fading, taking a significant bite out of the Steelers’ ability to wear down defenses physically. Even defensive tackle Joe Greene was 34 and only one season away from retirement. The core of the team was wearing out. The result was three losses in their final five regular-season games and a 9-7 record that shut them out of a playoff spot.
Fatal flaws that ended it: A franchise-altering hit and a fumble. Aside from a mediocre running game, the 1990 49ers had everything to lock up a three-peat heading into the playoffs. But a blindside hit by New York Giants defensive end Leonard Marshall crushed 49ers quarterback Joe Montana late in the NFC title game. Montana had already been having trouble with his back prior to Marshall’s hit, and he paid a price for holding onto the ball for nearly 7 seconds while flushing out of the pocket and looking downfield. When Montana finally squared up to pass, Marshall decked him and knocked Montana out of the game with San Francisco ahead 13-12. Steve Young took over, but with the 49ers driving into Giants territory with less than three minutes left in the game, Roger Craig fumbled the ball away, giving New York the last gasp of life it needed. The Giants took the turnover and went downfield, kicking a game-winning field goal for a 15-13 curtain on the 49ers’ three-peat shot. One elbow injury later for Montana during the 1991 preseason, and it was the beginning of the end. Montana missed the 1991 season the majority of 1992, effectively turning the franchise over to Young and paving the way for Montana’s trade to Kansas City in 1993.
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Fatal flaw that ended it: The raging ego of Cowboys owner Jerry Jones. In arguably the most infamous decision in Cowboys history, Jones fired head coach Jimmy Johnson after back-to-back Super Bowl titles and replaced him with Barry Switzer. For the younger generation of NFL fans, it’s hard to quantify what a zany moment this was. Imagine if Robert Kraft had suddenly fired Bill Belichick after the New England Patriots’ back-to-back Super Bowl wins in the 2003 and 2004 seasons. That’s a little what this was like — except with a wilder team owner and a louder, flashier head coach. We could go on and pick apart that NFC title game that saw Dallas fall into a 21-0 first quarter hole that it never recovered from, but we don’t have to. The triplets from that team — quarterback Troy Aikman, running back Emmitt Smith and wideout Michael Irvin — have all pointed to Johnson’s firing as being the reason the Cowboys failed in their bid to three-peat. And for that matter, Jones has recounted the firing of Johnson as a regrettable mistake, too.
Fatal flaw that ended it: John Elway’s retirement. The Broncos won back to back titles in the 1997 and 1998 seasons, but Elway was breaking down physically in that last season. He had hamstring, back and rib issues over the course of the season, missing three games entirely and parts of two others. He was 38 years old and it was evident that 1998 was likely his last hurrah — especially if he won his second Super Bowl and could walk out on top. That’s what he did, and the Broncos promptly fell apart on offense under Elway’s replacement, Brian Griese, who was taking over in his second NFL season. Despite still having a talented roster, the scoring output told you everything you needed to know, going from 31.3 points per game to 19.6. That manifested in a 6-10 season that was effectively over by mid-November.
2005 New England Patriots
Fatal flaws that ended it: Coaching turnover and a massive spate of injuries that gutted the team. When Brady talks about how hard it is to win just one Super Bowl, he often focuses the experience through coaching staff losses, injuries, lack of focus and a general disruption of the remarkable discipline that it takes to win back-to-back titles. He’s likely speaking from his 2005 experience, which began without the previous year’s two seasoned coordinators, after the defense’s Romeo Crennel and offense’s Charlie Weis left to take head coaching jobs elsewhere. Belichick elevated Eric Mangini to defensive coordinator, but didn’t replace Weis at all, instead leaning on himself, Brady and young assistants Josh McDaniels (who was quarterbacks coach) and Brian Daboll (wide receivers) to shape the offense from one week to the next. That wasn’t even close to the worst of it, as New England was forced to play an assembly line of different offensive and defensive lineups, after losing multiple key players to injuries. That included massive team leaders like safety Rodney Harrison and linebacker Tedy Bruschi, as well as two of Brady’s key offensive linemen in future All-Pros Dan Koppen and Matt Light. The general disruption of continuity and chemistry eventually exacted a price when the Patriots had to go on the road to face the Denver Broncos in the second round of the playoffs. The Patriots fell behind 24-6 to a Jake Plummer-led Broncos team and never recovered, seeing their three-peat hopes crash in a 27-13 loss.
These eight failed opportunities show a wide array of avenues that could lead the Chiefs into a tailspin this season. And if you were to go back in time, it was hard to see some of the failures coming. All it takes is one significant spate of injuries, or a few players falling off unexpectedly — or a single game-turning play or moment that nobody sees coming. And just like that, the pursuit for three straight Super Bowl wins ends.
“I’m not saying it can’t be done. It certainly can be done,” Brady said. “The Chiefs have a great opportunity to do it. I would never bet against the Chiefs at this point, with their organization structured the way it is, they’ve got a lot of great pieces in place. They have a great opportunity, but it’s going to be a big challenge for them. And I know those guys are up for a challenge, so we’ll see what they can do.”