Tweaking History

Today marks the 59th time the Super Bowl has been played. Over those 59 years, seven teams have attempted to win the biggest game for a third straight year. All have failed.

They are:

Dolphins 72-73

Steelers 74-75

Steelers 78-79

49ers 88-89

Cowboys 92-93

Broncos 97-98

Patriots 03-04

For various reasons, each did not succeed. One can contemplate that it is exceedingly hard to win just one, not to mention two in a row. So why not three in a row if you were good enough to win two? For the Dolphins, they bumped up against a future dynasty in Pittsburgh. For the Steelers, John Madden's Raiders finally assembled a team of talented and hard-nosed players to thwart the momentum the Steelers had. But the Steelers kept it going and would try again in 1980, but once again the Raiders got in their way. And then came the Niners. You cannot look at football in the 1980s without seeing Joe Montana constantly in your face the exact way Tom Brady was and essentially still is. Were it not for a brutal hit by DT Leonard Marshall in the NFC Championship game that knocked Montana out (and a fumble by SF at the worst possible time), the Niners may have three-peated. Side note - ESPN's Chris Berman constantly predicted the Niners-Bills as the Super Bowl participants, and 1990 may have been the year. Not meant to be.

The Cowboys had it all and were primed to win every year, however, as noted famously, two massive egos could not coexist forever.

The one team that might have done it would be the Broncos teams of the late 90s. This might be the greatest upset in this NFL since Jets over Colts in Super Bowl III. The upstart Jaguars, in their second year of existence, went to Denver in 1996 and blasted the Broncos from the jump. Led by head coach Tom Coughlin and southpaw Mark Brunell, the Jaguars took the fight to Denver and never let up. Interestingly, 1996 saw both the expansion Panthers and Jaguars make it to their respective league championship games. Both teams exactly one year in the league. Just imagine the sweat on the brow of the person who made a futures bet on the Panthers to meet the Jags in the Super Bowl. Oh what could have been....

That brings us to the Patriots, the last time to attempt the three-peat. As great as their dominance was, it just so happened that guys like Big Ben, Peyton Manning, and brother Eli were just going to get in their way. It's hard. It's very hard. It's hard to get to one. It's hard to win just one. It's crazy hard two win two, and to win two in a row?

It is important to be present in the moment if the Chiefs pull this off today. People say there is apathy and sports fatigue for this one. Well, there was sports fatigue watching Ivan Lendl and Roger Federer. There was sports fatigue watching UCLA basketball. If there is sports fatigue, it means you are watching absolute greatness.