As Kansas City Chiefs talk about a three-peat, it seems time to point out it has happened before.
On Thursday night, the Kansas City Chiefs got the 2024 NFL season underway, defeating the Baltimore Ravens 27-20. This year’s Chiefs have been clear about their goal of winning a third straight Super Bowl. Pat Riley gave the term “three-peat” to the three straight championship run (and then trademarked the term as well). The term has been used a lot this off-season as the Chiefs seem determined to make this historic run, with some commentators saying that it would be the first of its kind: the very first NFL Super Bowl three-peat. This is technically true, but also hiding a huge fact. The NFL has already had two three-peat champions.
Championship Amnesia
All sports leagues discuss their history and prior champions. Everyone knows the New York Yankees have more World Series titles than anyone else. Everyone knows the Boston Celtics hold this similar distinction in the NBA. The oddest part of the NFL is that people have picked a rather random date to restart NFL history.
The NFL was founded in 1920. You might even remember the recent NFL celebrations around the 100 years of NFL. The NFL even released an NFL All-100 Team with players like Don Hutson, Sammy Baugh and Jack Christiansen, all of whom who never played in a Super Bowl. Of course, that was because that name —and that game — did not exist.
The NFL is the only professional league where people only talk about championship after a certain date. As we start this 105th season of NFL football, we are only looking forward to crowning a champion of Super Bowl LXIX, but that leaves 46 years of champions that just get forgotten.
The Comparisons
Imagine a world where we to use the same 1966 season as the cutoff for all leagues. The argument is always that it was so long ago that you do not need to count them. Then why don’t we apply that to all sports?
In that case, only two teams have ever three-peated in Major League Baseball and no one has ever done it four years in a row. The Yankees teams that won four in a row (1936-1939) and five in a row (1949-1953) just did not happen. Also, the Yankees only have seven championship in the “Super Bowl Era.” That statement is correct, but also misleading.
Sure, we would count the Chicago Bulls two runs in the 1990s and early 200s run of the Lakers. However, the Celtics have never had a “Super Bowl Era” three-peat. Also, the Celtics only have nine championships in this era. The Lakers’ 12 titles in this era are well ahead, with the Bulls’ six not far behind.
NFL Championship History
If we look at all 104 prior seasons of the NFL, there have been 17 back-to-back champions. Two — and nearly three — of those teams ended up winning three straight.
What do we mean by “nearly three”? This involves the Canton Bulldogs, who were NFL champions in in 1922 and 1923. The team faced some financial difficulties and were actually sold off. This created an odd scenario where the Cleveland Indians’ owner purchased the team and combined his two teams to make the Cleveland Bulldogs. The Cleveland Bulldogs won the championship in 1924. Oddly, the Bulldogs were sold back to Canton, later became the Detroit Wolverines and ended by being bought by Tim Mara and the players were incorporated into the New York Giants. But this doesn’t qualify as a true three-peat since it was truly a new team.
A few years later, the Green Bay Packers won three straight NFL championships from 1929-1931. These teams featured multiple future NFL Hall of Famers including an NFL All-100 Coach in Curly Lambeau. Additionally, the 1929 season was an undefeated championship.
Of course, the most startling omission is the second three-peat in NFL history, which was again the Green Bay Packers. From 1965-1967, the Packers won three straight NFL championships, and the overlap with the Super Bowl era is notable. Setting an arbitrary cutoff at the first Super Bowl would ignore history and call this a back-to-back run with a failed three-peat. However, the Super Bowl II ring has three diamonds in it to represent the team’s three straight NFL championships.
Acknowledging the Past Doesn’t Taint the Future
What the Chiefs are seeking is historic. It is not, however, unprecedented. Saying that no team has won three Super Bowls is correct and misleading. It is the same as saying the Yankees only have seven “Super Bowl Era” championships.
People can note that winning three straight is an incredible feat without pretending history can be arbitrarily restarted. If the Chiefs win this year, and then in 2030 the Super Bowl has naming rights sold, would anyone say “no one has ever won back-to-back Larry’s Autoparts Bowl Trophies?” Doubtful, but maybe after 30 or 40 years, they might start to talk like that. Pretending this could be the first NFL three-peat does a disservice to the history of the NFL.