Inside the ‘incredibly hard’ three-peat challenge Chiefs face from those who have failed before them
Maybe a curse was placed on the bouncy rubber toy that originally inspired the name “Super Bowl” for pro football’s championship game.
What other explanation is there for the first eight teams to win back-to-back Super Bowls failing in their quest for a three-peat? Especially when three teams went to at least three consecutive Super Bowls, two captured three Super Bowl titles in a four-year span and one celebrated four Super Bowl titles in a six-year span.
“It’s incredibly hard to do,” a chorus of back-to-back Super Bowl winners, including several Hall of Famers, echoed in separate interviews with The Post.
And it’s only made more difficult when a franchise quarterback retires — like John Elway did from the 1999 Broncos. Or a great head coach steps down — like Vince Lombardi and Jimmy Johnson leaving the 1968 Packers and 1994 Cowboys. Or stars are hit with major injuries — which seemingly happened in every case.
Travis Kelce and Patrick Mahomes are going for a three-peat after winning back to back Super Bowls.
“There’s no primer on how to three-peat,” former Steelers linebacker Jack Ham said. “It’s such a unique wall. When you are trying to win your second, the challenge is there because people say you snuck up on people. When you’ve won back-to-back, you’ve taken everybody’s best shot. When you are going for your third, you are not trying to prove something to somebody. You are trying to put a legacy out there.”
Challenge accepted, Chiefs? The biggest storyline entering the 2024 NFL season is Kansas City’s shot to make history in Super Bowl 59.
Because Patrick Mahomes is still playing quarterback, Andy Reid is still stalking the sideline and Travis Kelce, Chris Jones and other stars are still healthy, the Chiefs just might be well-positioned to succeed where others failed. After all, it was Chiefs owner Clark Hunt’s childhood Super Ball that lent its name to the Super Bowl.
“I haven’t seen another quarterback throw the ball behind his back, so right away there is an imagination that they have somebody … who has the capabilities of doing something no quarterback has ever done,” former 49ers safety Ronnie Lott said. “A lot of people look at Mahomes as someone who can overcome anything. It’s going to [eventually] happen.”
But why hasn’t it? There have been five three-peats (or longer) in the NBA Finals, five in the Stanley Cup Final, four in the World Series, four in college basketball (one men’s and three women’s), one in the WNBA Finals and one already in the first three years of reincarnated USFL/UFL.
Vince Lombardi and the Packers won back-to-back Super Bowls.
A few theories and trends emerged.
“The most important thing is you have to be lucky,” former Cowboys fullback Daryl Johnston said. “That is an element not a lot of people take into consideration. Everything [is supposed to be] earned, performance, outstanding athleticism, but the ball has to bounce your way and you have to stay away from injuries.”
Wear and Tear Theory
The adage goes that an NFL player’s body can only withstand a certain number of hits. The Chiefs’ next playoff game will be their 19th of the Mahomes Era — and it could be against an opponent like the Bills (11th), Texans (sixth) or Jets (first).
“Playing three extra games and a whole extra month year after year has a collective toll on your body,” said former Broncos offensive lineman Mark Schlereth, who, like Johnston, is now a Fox analyst. “Injuries become a significant reason that teams don’t repeat.”
Even for the teams that are able to get by on a playoff adrenaline rush, more games means more opportunity for injury.
Franco Harris and the Steelers won back-to-back Super Bowls.
Might the 1976 Steelers — with a defense that allowed 28 total points in their final nine games — have three-peated if both 1,000-yard rushers, Franco Harris and Rocky Bleier, were not injured in a playoff win against Baltimore and thus unavailable for the next week’s loss to the Raiders?
“Some of our players think that might’ve been our best team because we were peaking at the right time on both sides of the ball,” Ham said. “But we didn’t win it so you can’t say that. That year still sits in our craw.”
When the Steelers got a three-peat do-over, after winning back-to-back titles again in 1978 and 1979, the core sensed it was unlikely.
“That 1976 team was kind of the epitome of the 1974-75 teams,” Bleier said. “By 1980, we were too old. It was kind of that [last hurrah] feeling.”
Decades later, the ones-that-got-away can be more devastating than the wins are fulfilling.
The back-to-back champion 49ers had a four-point lead with 10 minutes remaining in the 1990 NFC Championship game when Joe Montana was knocked out on a sack. In their fifth playoff meeting in a decade, the Giants rallied for a walk-off win and Montana never started another game for the 49ers.
Joe Montana gets sacked in 1990 NFC Championship Game.
“I know a lot of Navy SEALs that would say we continue to find ways to finish the mission,” Lott said, drawing an analogy to great champions. “We thought we had a great shot at winning three in a row. Even though some of the odds were for us, we couldn’t overcome some factors.”
Injuries don’t always wait until the playoffs. Cowboys right tackle Erik Williams, Broncos running back Terrell Davis, Patriots safety Rodney Harrison and other stars suffered team-altering season-ending injuries during potential three-peat seasons.
Depth isn’t what it used to be pre-free agency in 1993.
“In our era, it was about backups who can step up because we all had the right attitude,” former Dolphins fullback Larry Csonka said. “Today’s teams all have the right attitude to get there, but it’s not as physically demanding as it was. In that case, the likelihood of them getting there is more likely today than it was back then.”
Bull’s-eye Theory
John Elway retired after winning back-to-back Super Bowls with the Broncos.
Every defending champion wears a target on its back.
But does the bull’s-eye get bigger with each successive title? Opinions are split.
“There is nothing more than 100 percent that you can get from an opponent,” Ham said. “Once you have the title of defending champion, the pressure is going to be there and it can’t get any more.”
Unless an opponent draws extra motivation from being dynasty-stoppers.
“I think it continues to grow with the legend that is Mahomes, Kelce and Jones,” Schlereth said. “That stuff is real. That’s a game you circle on the calendar and say, ‘That’s a litmus test for us.’ ”
If any defending Super Bowl champion is the most marked team from week-to-week, the Cowboys might be second every year because of the polarizing feelings that come with the “America’s Team” moniker. Put the two together and the 1992-95 Cowboys had no easy games.
Jimmy Johnson left the Cowboys after winning consecutive championships.
“We had a bull’s-eye on our backs when we were 1-15 [in 1989]: People wanted to kick us when we were down,” Johnston said. “If you have the right people on your team, the bull’s-eye theory should never come into play because you should be able to trust every individual to do the job to the best of their ability.”
The Patriots learned how to handle wearing the crown after they didn’t make the playoffs in 2002, on the heels of their first title. They won the next two.
“When you win, you say, ‘We did that. We have a few things to get together and we can get right back in the hunt,’ ” former Patriots running back Kevin Faulk said. “It ain’t that easy. After not making the playoffs, veteran guys made it their business, like, ‘I don’t know if we are going to make it to the Super Bowl again, but we are not going to miss the playoffs.’ ”
Satiated Theory
Andy Reid, Travis Kelce and Patrick Mahomes are all back for another title run in Kansas City.
The Super Bowl rings for the undefeated 1972 Dolphins include the phrase “Winning Edge.” It’s what head coach Don Shula called making sure his players never became complacent, distracted or forgetful of the task’s difficulty.
It can happen.
“Guys seem to get satiated by success,” Schlereth said. “There is the rubber-chicken circuit, where you won, you have Super Bowl rings and you have speaking engagements and you are missing workouts. Are you as prepared as normal?”
No one sniffed inflated egos out better than the Patriots dynasty, which went to nine Super Bowls from 2001-18 but never three-peated.
“It’s such a copycat league now,” Faulk said. “When you are a successful organization, everybody is looking at you. You may be playing against a team that does everything you do. You have to defend that. It’s difficult.”
Copycats include losing teams signing glue guys away from Super Bowl teams to start and hiring coordinators to be head coaches, hoping the magic rubs off. The 2005 Patriots lost both their play-callers.
The Chiefs, whose offseason was marred by multiple player arrests, are a model of coaching stability.
“It’s a bit of mixed feelings for everybody who’s ever been in this situation,” Bleier said. “There’s a part of us that goes, ‘I hope they [mess] up.’ Then there’s another part that goes, ‘I hope they prove that it can be done.’ ”
The what-ifs
If the first Super Bowl was played one year earlier, the Packers might have won the first three. As is, the 1965 Packers won the final NFL championship — before the winner faced the American Football League champion (1965 Bills) for the “world championship” — and then the first two Super Bowls.
Patrick Mahomes celebrates after winning Super Bowl LIV.
The front-end three-peat possibility is a theme for back-to-back champions over time. Maybe the Chiefs’ best chance actually was when they blew an 18-point lead in the 2021 AFC Championship game.
For the Broncos — who lost at home as 14-point favorites to the Jaguars in the 1996 “Ambush at Mile High” playoff game — that is the case.
“We weren’t going to let it happen again,” head coach Mike Shanahan said. “[That’s] one of the reasons we won two in a row. We sure let an opportunity possibly slip by for winning three. We had a different team, after our two Super Bowl wins, in 1999. It’s very hard to keep the same team together and play at the level it takes to win throughout the playoffs three years in a row.”
The Dolphins’ three-peat beat bid officially ended on a miraculous touchdown pass into double coverage by the Raiders in the final minute of the “Sea of Hands” game in the 1974 divisional playoffs. An all-time play took out the three-time defending AFC champions, whose missed opportunity might have been losing the Super Bowl in 1971.
“Down to that one play,” Csonka said. “That’s about as close as you can get right there.”
The bounce of a ball — a Roger Craig fumble — hurt the 49ers. The penalty-no penalty fine line — a Deion Sanders pass-interference no-call against Michael Irvin — is a what-if that haunts the Cowboys.
“I’ve always wondered, if Jimmy Johnson doesn’t leave and Erik Williams doesn’t get hurt, how many Super Bowls does that team win in a row?” Johnston said. “Because we were young, but we learned how to practice and we knew what Jimmy [Johnson] expected from us. The hardest thing for us is we made it to the [NFC] championship game and it was the worst six minutes of football that group ever played together as a team — in the biggest game of the season, with the opportunity to do something nobody ever had done before.”
It’s up to the Chiefs to leave no doubts.
