NEW ORLEANS —The Pittsburgh Steelers were the first NFL franchise to win four Super Bowl, and they did it in a six-year span in the 1970s, setting the standard for what it would mean for an NFL team to wear the word dynasty.
This year, the Kansas City Chiefs have a chance to win their fourth title as well, certainly joining, and perhaps even surpassing those that came before them.
The Chiefs won Super Bowl LIV after the 2019 season and lost Super Bowl LV after the 2020 season. After an AFC Championship Game loss in 2021, they won back-to-back Super Bowls in 2022 and 2023.
If the Chiefs beat the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LIX on Sunday, they'll have won four Super Bowls in a six-year span, just like those 1970s Steelers, and they'll have also won another AFC title in that stretch.
Perhaps most importantly, they'll be the first team to win three straight Super Bowl titles with a win.
Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes (15) warms up as head coach Andy Reid looks on before the NFL Super Bowl 57 football game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles, Sunday, Feb. 12, 2023, in Glendale, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
The New England Patriots had the best run of success in league history, winning six Super Bowls, but did it over a 17-year span. Only Tom Brady won all six, and one else won more than three, so it's hard to call them a coherent dynasty. It's almost two dynasties, winning three from 2001-04 and three from 2014-18, with only Brady connecting them.
There certainly can be an argument to be made for the San Francisco 49ers , who won five Super Bowls from 1981-94, but no players won all five, and just five won four.
Of the 29 NFL players to win four Super Bowl rings with one team, 22 of them played for the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 1970s, six played with the 49ers in the 1980s and 1990s, and Brady won six with the Pats. That's it.
Five more could join that group this week: Harris Butker, Chris Jones , Travis Kelce , Patrick Mahomes and James Winchester.
That's nowhere near the 1970s Steelers, but the game has changed with free agency and a salary cap. It's a lot harder to keep a team together for as long as the Chiefs have been together. That's probably why no one has ever won three in a row.
Chiefs wide receiver Justin Watson could also win his fourth Super Bowl ring, though his first one came with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2021, against the Chiefs. He has personally won three straight Super Bowls and would become the first player to win their four consecutively.
Watson is a Pittsburgh-area native. He grew up in South Fayette, and though he was born 20 years after the Steelers ended their 70s run, he certainly understands the comparisons between what those Black and Gold teams did and what the Chiefs are doing right now.
"I think my people back in Pittsburgh are never giving up those Steelers teams with Bradshaw and that defense and everybody else, but it would be unbelievable to be mentioned along teams like that and those 2000s Patriots teams would be just an unbelievable honor," Watson said at the Super Bowl this week.
Obviously, it takes special talent to won the Super Bowl, and Chiefs have this with Mahomes, Kelce and company. They have the best coach in the NFL in Andy Reid. But it takes more than that, as well.
"I think a lot of other teams get complacent after a championship, and each year we're just all in," Watson said. "We get back to that first day OTAs, and everybody's full speed, just really competitive, really committed, and I think that's what makes this team really special."
Skyy Moore was drafted by the Chiefs in 2022. The New Kensington, Pa., native has won the Super Bowl in each of his first two NFL seasons, and is going for three in a row. It didn't take him long to realize what makes Kansa City special.
"It starts from the top down," Moore said. "It's the way that we do things. It's the way that Coach Reid runs his team. We got a whole locker room of guys that follow his lead. So, just our consistency and our attention to detail is what's got us here for the third year in a row."
Moore is even younger than Watson. He can barely remember the first of the Steelers' two 2000s-era Super Bowls. But he understands the eventual comparisons to the greatness in Pittsburgh's past, especially when he returns to his hometown with some bragging rights about the Chiefs catching up to the Steelers' standard.
"Yeah, you know, sometimes I'll throw my hand on the table with the rings on it, let them know, like, the Steelers ain't what they used to be," Moore said with a smile. You know, last time they won, I was like eight years old. But I still got love for Pittsburgh. The Steelers, you know, that's still my number two. But, yeah, definitely pull their leg a little bit when I go back home."
More must-reads:
