Dynasty Patriots cant help but see similarities in Chiefs as they chase Super Bowl immortality
NEW ORLEANS — Every NFL season — as sure as there will be hand-wringing over officiating and scrutiny about whether the Jets and Giants can extricate themselves from their malaises — it happens. A team goes deep into the regular season without losing and the talk begins about whether that team might equal what the ’72 Dolphins did in producing a perfect, undefeated season through the Super Bowl. And every NFL season, a team threatening to go undefeated is beaten and members of that ’72 Dolphins team, who want their feat to stand alone, rejoice. The teams and the week when that first loss occurs change from year to year.But whenever it happens, former Miami players pop open champagne and celebrate. The Chiefs, despite their dynastic dominance in reaching a fifth Super Bowl in the past six seasons, did not go undefeated this season en route to Sunday’s Super Bowl LIX against the Eagles.
They lost one regular-season game, and it came after a 9-0 start. But the Chiefs are in pursuit of an even more impressive feat than an undefeated regular season: a three-peat. A Chiefs win over the Eagles on Sunday at the Superdome would make them the first team ever to win the Lombardi Trophy three years in a row. That would place the Chiefs in rarefied air — New England air, to be specific. The Patriots and their six Super Bowl wins between 2001 and 2018 stand alone as the greatest dynasty in NFL history.A Kansas City three-peat would actually trump what those remarkable New England teams accomplished because they never won three in a row, going back-to-back once. And yet, as many of the former Patriots players from those teams have watched Kansas City, they stand in awe with respect and admiration for what the Chiefs are doing. Unlike those former Miami players, many former Patriots players want to see history made — even if it’s somewhat at their expense. This is proof of how impressive this Chiefs run of success has been. “I’m not rooting again...