Chiefs trying for first Super Bowl repeat win in 16 years
Do it again?
Not in the NFL, at least not lately.
On Feb. 7, the Kansas City Chiefs will be the latest franchise to attempt winning successive Super Bowls when they take on the Buccaneers. In Tampa, of all places. Against Tom Brady, of all people.
It’s an achievement simply to get this far once again.
“The thing I can see as a positive is the record, that we’ve persevered through some tough games,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid said, “and so the mental toughness to do that individually each week was important, knowing that you’re going to get people’s best shot, and there’s the respect factor.
“They didn’t question each other, they didn’t question the coaches, they stayed focused and delivered. However, that falls in,
I’m not sure how to categorize that, but I just think that might have been the biggest challenge. You’ve seen that with teams, when things aren’t going right, they just kind of fall apart there. Our guys have not done that, they all stuck together and trusted.”
Only twice since the Patriots pulled off the most recent repeat in the 2003 and 2004 seasons has a champion gotten back to the big game. Seattle failed in the 2014 season — against New England, no less; remember Malcolm Butler’s goal-line interception? — and the Patriots in the 2017 season, the Super Bowl featuring the Philly Special.
Super Bowl repeats once were relatively common. The first two went to the Lombardi Packers. Don Shula’s Dolphins soon replicated the feat, even throwing in a perfect season for 1972. And Pittsburgh’s Steel Curtain not only went back to back in the 1974 and ‘75 seasons, they did so again in 1978 and ‘79.
We’re not done. The Bill Walsh/Joe Montana 49ers were the 1988 and ‘89 champions; Dallas and its Hall of Fame Triplets of Emmitt Smith, Troy Aikman and Michael Irvin pulled off the double in 1992 and ‘93; then John Elway finished off his illustrious Broncos career with two straight NFL titles in 1997 and ‘98.
But since Tom Brady took New England to the top 2003 and ‘04, nothing.
“It’s hard, you know?” Brady has said — and he is heading to his record 10th Super Bowl.
Brady led New England to its first NFL title in the 2001 season, a second-year backup until Drew Bledsoe suffered a chest injury in the second game of the schedule. After missing the playoffs entirely in 2002, the Patriots were primed for another championship challenge the next year. They put together a league-best 14-2 record sparked by the defense (238 points allowed, an NFL low) at a time when Brady was not yet an offensive force.
That defense featured one Pro Football Hall of Famer, cornerback Ty Law; a 2021 finalist for the hall, lineman Richard Seymour, and such other notables as Tedy Bruschi, Rodney Harrison, Willie McGinest and Mike Vrabel.