Maybe we should start with teams that no repeats as Super Bowl champions, who couldn’t take the title in two steps, because they include some of the greatest teams of all time and offer an accuracy plan on how treacherous the path to glory can be.
Grab the Bears of 1986. In ’85, they scored 18-1 and went through the Patriots in Super Bowl 20. They had everything on both sides of the ball, even if Buddy Ryan had fled to Philly after get a ride from your defense to the Superdome. They won 14 of 16 games and allowed 11 points less than the 85 team, and would have organized the NFC title game against the Giants … except Washington beat them 27-13 at Soldier Field the previous week . Da Bears hit Da Wall.
Take the 2000 Rams, heirs to the Greatest Show on Turf that had looted the NFL the year before, which actually scored 14 points more than its big-flight predecessors, once offensive, Mike Martz succeeded Dick Vemeil, but no he was able to get out of the first round the following year, handing the Saints the first playoff victory in their hitherto tortured Big Easy story.
Grab the 2014 Seahawks, who had strangled the Broncos in the Super Bowl the year before, 43-8, who spent the regular season and got a miraculous comeback against the Packers in the NFC title game and were set up – perfectly – second and 1 goal, time runs out against the Patriots … before Russell Wilson’s throw found Malcolm Butler’s arms before Ricardo Lockette’s.
Listen to the men who I could not do this:
“Sometimes,” Mike Ditka said on Jan. 3, 1987, “the best team doesn’t win.”
“We thought we’d just catch fire and roll again,” Kurt Warner said on Dec. 30, 2000. “But football can be a fun game sometimes.”
“It’s hard to repeat,” Pete Carroll said on Feb. 1, 2015. “For example.”
So you see what the Kansas City bosses are facing now, with a chance to repeat as NFL champions. Only seven franchises have managed to do so, 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 thought they could win at all who arrived.
“Winning when everyone else doesn’t want anything more to bring you down a couple or two, is the best thing there is,” Vince Lombardi said on Jan. 14, 1968, when his Packers (only 9-4- 1 of the regular season), who had barely escaped from Dallas in the Ice Bowl, an Oakland 33-14. “It simply came to our notice then. Nothing “.
The 72 Dolphins made it 17-0, but it was still the team the following year, losing twice, which might have been the best of Miami’s consecutive teams. As much as the Kansas City passing game made people shake their heads, so did the fish of Larry Csonka, Mercury Morris and Jim Kiick, and while the 72 team had some postseason struggles, the repeaters of 73 they beat the Bengals, Raiders and Vikings 85-33.
“Maybe we’ll do it again next year,” Csonka broke after accepting her MVP trophy and, as we know, no team has ever done that, it went 3 to 3. The Steelers got closer: they won four out of six titles between 1974 and 1979, and are the only team to return two-on-two and split wealth between their Hall of Fame bag: Franco Harris and Lynn Swann won MVP of the Super Bowl the first time, with Terry Bradshaw winning the trophy each of the second two.
“I won’t say we’re the best team in history,” Mean Green, the heart of the Steel Curtain defense, said on Jan. 20, 1980, after the Steelers fired the Rams 31-19 for No 4. “But I don’t care that we’ll be in this conversation for a very, very long time.”
However, as impressive as the first four reps were, the last four were probably more unlikely, because they all happened after the NFL economy began to change, when parity began to be associated with the office. of the league thanks to free agency and the salary cap. When the 49ers 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), the Broncos (1997-98) and the Patriots (2003-04) each pulled out their two titles, there was a sense, every time, maybe we wouldn’t do it again. never see again. In fact, when on February 6, 2005, when the Brady-Belichick collaboration beat the Eagles for the third of their six titles in Jacksonville, the coach, a versed football historian, understood what the moment meant.
“You need a lot of good coaches, a lot of great players and a little bit of good luck,” Bill Belichick said that day, and many thought it might be the last background we would ever see. And it still could be, unless the Chiefs decide to change this Sunday’s timeline against Tampa. With Tom Brady on his way, making him an honorary goalkeeper in history. Of couse.