Maybe we should start with the teams that no Repeat as champions of the Super Bowl, this could not lead to two stages of the title, as they include some of the best teams of all time and provide a plan for how treacherous the path back to glory can be.
Look at the 1986 bears. At 85, they went 18-1 and rolled for the Patriots in Super Bowl 20. They had everything, on both sides of the ball, even though Buddy Ryan had fled to Philadelphia after getting a ride from his defense in the Superdome. They won 14 out of 16 games and actually allowed 11 points less than the 85 team, and would have hosted the NFC title game against the Giants … except that Washington stepped them 27-13 at Soldier Field the week before . Da Bears hit Da Wall.
Take the 2000 Rams, heirs to the Greatest Show on Turf that swept the NFL the previous year, which actually scored 14 points more than its predecessors, since the offensive genius of Mike Martz succeeded Dick Vemeil, but failed to escape the first round the following year, giving the Saints their first playoff victory in their hitherto tortured Big Easy story.
Take the case of the 2014 Seahawks, who had smothered the Broncos in the previous year’s 43-8 Super Bowl, who rolled in their regular season and made a miraculous recovery against the Packers in the NFC title game and were prepared – perfectly second and 1 goal, time running out against the Patriots … before Russell Wilson’s move found Malcolm Butler’s arms before Ricardo Lockette’s.
Listen to the men who could not do it:
“Sometimes,” said Mike Ditka on January 3, 1987, “the best team doesn’t win.”
“We thought we were going to catch fire and roll again,” said Kurt Warner on December 30, 2000. “But football can be a funny game at times.”
“It’s hard to repeat,” said Pete Carroll on February 1, 2015. “Case in point.”
So you see what the Kansas City Chiefs are up against right now, with the opportunity to repeat themselves as an NFL champion. Only seven franchises have managed to do this, a total of eight times since Green Bay became the first, winning Super Bowls I and II in Los Angeles and Miami, at a time when the Pack realized it could beat anyone and all competitors .
“Winning when the whole world wants nothing more to bring you down, is the best there is,” said Vince Lombardi on January 14, 1968, when his Packers – just 9-4-1 in the regular season, who barely escaped Dallas in the Ice Bowl – defeated Oakland 33-14. “Nothing about it is easy. Nothing.”
The ’72 Dolphins was 17-0, and yet it was the team from the following year that lost twice, which may well have been the best of the consecutive Miami teams. As much as the Kansas City passing game makes people shake their heads, it also did Larry Csonka’s Fish ground and pound, Mercury Morris and Jim Kiick, and while the 72 team had some fights in the postseason, the repeaters 73 overcame the Bengals, Raiders and Vikings 85-33.
“Maybe we will do it again next year,” said Csonka after accepting his MVP trophy and, as we know, no team has ever done that, never done 3 in 3. The Steelers came closer – winning four out of six titles between 1974 and 1979, and they are the only team to return twice, and spread the wealth among their group of Hall of Fame members – Franco Harris and Lynn Swann won Super Bowl MVP for the first time, with Terry Bradshaw winning the trophy each two seconds.
“I’m not going to say that we’re the best team ever,” said Mean Joe Greene, the heart of the Steel Curtain defense, on January 20, 1980, after the Steelers dismissed Rams 31-19 for No 4. “But I don’t care if we stay in this conversation for a long, long time.”
Impressive as the first four repetitions were, the last four were probably more unlikely, because they all happened after the NFL economy started to change, when parity started to associate with the league office thanks to the free agency and the ceiling wage. When the 49ers were repeated in 1988 and 89, they had the same star power (Joe Montana, Jerry Rice, Ronnie Lott), but different coaches, Bill Walsh first, then George Seifert.
And by the time the Cowboys (1992-93), Broncos (1997-98) and Patriots (2003-04) took their two hands away, there was a feeling that, each time, we might never see that again. In fact, when the Brady-Belichick partnership won the Eagles for the third of their six titles in Jacksonville on February 6, 2005, the coach, a well-versed football historian, understood what the moment meant.
“You need a lot of good coaches, a lot of good players and a little luck,” said Bill Belichick that day, and many guessed that this would be the last consecutive one we would see. And it still can be, unless the Chiefs decide to change the schedule this Sunday against Tampa. With Tom Brady on his way, serving as an honorary porter of history. Clear.