The Kansas City Chiefs are in historic territory.
The Chiefs, with a resounding 32-29 victory over the Buffalo Bills in the AFC Championship Game on Sunday afternoon, earned their spot in Super Bowl LIX. They will face the Philadelphia Eagles – who beat the Washington Commanders in the NFC Championship Game – next month in New Orleans.
If the Chiefs are able to win the Lombardi Trophy, it will mark their third straight Super Bowl victory. No team in NFL history has ever won three in a row. In fact, very few have had the opportunity to do so. Kansas City is the first team to reach the Super Bowl after winning the game twice in a row.
Before the Chiefs, only eight other teams in NFL history have won consecutive Super Bowls. The New England Patriots were the most recent team to do so in the 2005 season. However, of those eight teams, only three of them reached their conference championship game the following season to have a chance at ‘reach a third. They all lost.
The triple trick is also so rare in American professional sports in general. The last major men’s professional team to win three consecutive championships was the Los Angeles Lakers. They won three consecutive NBA titles from 2000 to 2002.
Here’s a look at every time the NFL has come close to a Super Bowl three-peat.
Green Bay Packers (1966-67)
The Green Bay Packers won the first two Super Bowls in the 1996 and 1967 seasons, although they went only 6-7-1 the following season and did not make the playoffs . Their 1968 Super Bowl victory was technically their third consecutive championship, although only two were Super Bowl victories. Those three rounds don’t count because the first was just an NFL title before the Super Bowl started.
Miami Dolphins (1971-73)
The Miami Dolphins were the next franchise to win the Super Bowl again. They beat Washington 14-7 in 1973, then beat the Minnesota Vikings 24-7 to win the game the following January. This happened after the team reached the Super Bowl during the 1971 season, although the Dallas Cowboys beat them 24-3 in Super Bowl VI.
After their two Super Bowl victories, the Dolphins went 11-3 and lost in the divisional round of the playoffs the following year. Their hopes of a treble were dashed on both sides.
Pittsburgh Steelers (1974-75, 78-79)
The Steelers went on a dominant run over the next six seasons immediately following the Dolphins’ victories. They won two straight Super Bowls, first against the Vikings and Cowboys, then again against the Cowboys and Los Angeles Rams in the 1978 and 1979 seasons, respectively. This marked a period where they reached the Super Bowl four times in six seasons.
The Steelers also had a chance to advance to a third Super Bowl. They reached the AFC Championship Game during the 1976 season, but fell to the Oakland Raiders, the eventual Super Bowl champions. After their fourth ring, the Steelers missed the playoffs completely during the 1980 campaign to end their run.
San Francisco 49ers (1988-89)
The 49ers came so close to reaching a third straight Super Bowl after back-to-back titles during this series. They beat the Bengals in the Super Bowl during the 1988 campaign, then beat the Broncos the following year. While reaching the NFC title game in the 1990 playoffs, the New York Giants pulled off a two-point upset victory at Candlestick Park to advance to the Super Bowl that year. The Giants won that Super Bowl.
Dallas Cowboys (1992-95)
The Dallas Cowboys won three Super Bowl rings behind Troy Aikman over a four-season span, but they narrowly missed making the big game each time.
After their first two wins, the team lost in the NFC title game to Steve Young and the San Francisco 49ers during the 1994 season. The 49ers then defeated the San Diego Chargers to win the title that year -there. The Cowboys, after rebounding the following year and winning the Super Bowl, were then eliminated from the divisional round of the playoffs during the 1996 season. Since then, the team has not returned to the Super Bowl, nor even at an NFC championship game.
Denver Broncos (1997-98)
John Elway and the Denver Broncos won back-to-back Super Bowls in the 1997 and 1998 seasons, which marked their first championship after falling in the game four other times in history. After Elway’s retirement, the team failed to make the playoffs during the 1999 campaign. In fact, they only went 6-10 and finished last in their division in this race.
New England Patriots (2001–04)
The Patriots won three Super Bowls over a four-year span here, but missed the playoffs in the 2002 campaign to dash any hopes of a three-peat. They also fell in the divisional round of the playoffs in 2005.
Tom Brady and Bill Belichick ended up winning three more Super Bowls together before their dynasty collapsed, but none of them came in succession. They reached the AFC Championship Game eight straight times during the 2011-2018 seasons and reached the Super Bowl five times. They nearly had a three-peat twice, but fell in the AFC title game in the 2015 season and lost in the Super Bowl in the 2017 season.
