One of the most commonly misused words in all of sports is “unprecedented.” Many use the word to mean impressive, or to describe something that hasn’t been done in a while. The true meaning of unprecedented is that something has never happened before. Many might not have known if it was possible. That in mind, it’s undeniable that the Chief’s success in the past few years is unprecedented.
In the 2018/19 season, the Chiefs made the AFC championship game against the New England Patriots. This game was unprecedented, but not for the Chiefs. The Patriots were playing in their eighth consecutive AFC championship, an NFL record. At that point, no team had ever made it to more than five in a row. The Chiefs, starting then-fresh quarterback Patrick Mahomes, would go on to lose the game 37-31 in overtime. The Chiefs, however, would be back.
The next year, the Chiefs would make the Championship for a second time in a row. This time they would play against the Tennessee Titans, who knocked out the defending champions in the Wild Card round. The Chiefs took down the Titans 35-24 to advance Patrick Mahomes to his first-ever Super Bowl. They were set to play the San Francisco 49ers, led by quarterback Jimmy Garrapolo. The Chiefs defeated the 49ers 31-20, marking Mahomes’ first Super Bowl win. Impressive, but not unprecedented.
The next season, the Chiefs lost only two games in the regular season, allowing them to skip out on the Wild Card round. As such, they only needed to beat one team to advance to a third straight AFC Championship. They took care of business against the Cleveland Browns, then came to the Championship game ready to play against the Buffalo Bills. The Chiefs defeated the Bills 38-24 to advance to a second straight Super Bowl.
A second consecutive Super Bowl win is not unprecedented. Eight previous teams have accomplished the same feat. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the Chiefs’ time to complete it as well, as they fell to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 31-9.
Luckily for the Chiefs, they would receive no shortage of chances. In the next season, they would play a tense 42-36 overtime victory against the Bills in the Divisional Round, then go on to play the Cincinnati Bengals in the Championship. In another overtime thriller, the Chiefs fell 27-24 and failed to advance to a third straight Super Bowl.
At this point, the Chiefs were tied with four other teams for the fourth-most consecutive championship appearances. The Dallas Cowboys were the first to make four in a row in the 1970s, advancing to the Super Bowl twice and losing the championship the other two times. They had a similar record to the Chiefs, winning a Super Bowl, losing a Super Bowl, and losing two championship games.
Other teams to accomplish four in a row had far different outcomes. The Bills achieved the feat in the early 1990s, advancing to all four Super Bowls and losing every one of them. The Bills hold the record for most consecutive Super Bowl appearances, as well as most consecutive Super Bowl losses. The Cowboys went to four Championship games over a similar time period, winning three total Super Bowls. Two against the Bills, one against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Prior to the Chiefs, the Philadelphia Eagles were the last team to make four consecutive Championship appearances in the early 2000s. They lost three in a row before advancing to a Super Bowl, which they also lost.
The Chiefs were neither the first nor the most successful team to make four straight Conference Championships, but Patrick Mahomes was still determined to make history. In a press conference after the loss to the Bengals, Mahomes made it clear that the team’s sights were set on the Super Bowl. A season ending with anything less than a Super Bowl win was not a successful season.
The next year the Chiefs would make good on that statement, facing Cincinnati again in the Championship round and beating them 23-20. For the third time in four years, the Chiefs were in the Super Bowl.
Five straight Championship appearances put the Chiefs on the level of the 1970s Oakland Raiders, who advanced to only one Super Bowl in that period, which they won. The Chiefs had already made it to three, and they were angling towards their second win.
The game ended 38-35 in favor of the Chiefs, awarding their young dynasty a second Lombardi trophy. This would also kick off the Chiefs’ Super Bowl streak which would make their success truly unprecedented.
The next year, the Chiefs made it to another Conference Championship. Six straight put them solidly in second place, tied with nobody. They only had to compete with the 2010s Patriots, who had put up a streak of eight. The Chiefs played in a 17-10 win over the Baltimore Ravens in the Championship to advance to a second straight Super Bowl, a rematch against the 49ers.
The 49ers had gone through major changes since the first time these two teams butted heads. Most notably, the 49ers were now led by second-year quarterback Brock Purdy, who had been a revelation to the team being drafted with the last pick in the draft and getting a surprise start halfway through his first year. The former third-string quarterback was starting in a Super Bowl.
The game was closer this time. The two teams played to a 19-19 draw in regulation, marking the occasion as the second Super Bowl ever to go into overtime. The 49ers, getting the ball first, scored a field goal, taking the lead 22-19. As the final seconds ticked down, threatening a second overtime period, Mahomes threw a short touchdown to wide receiver Mecole Hardman, sealing the game for the Chiefs 25-22.
The success that the Chiefs had seen was impressive, but not unprecedented. Eight other teams achieved back-to-back Super Bowls, starting with the first two Super Bowls. The Green Bay Packers won both, though in the season after Super Bowl II the team was forced to play without head coach Vince Lombardi. His presence was sorely missed, and the team went 6-7-1 and missed the playoffs.
The next team to win two in a row were the Miami Dolphins, who won Super Bowl VII and VIII before falling in the Divisional Round to the Raiders the next year. The Steelers would then win two straight on two separate occasions in the 1970s. First, they won Super Bowl IX and X, making it to the Championship in the third season but falling to the Oakland Raiders. They then completed the streak again with wins in Super Bowl XIII and XIV, but played to a 9-7 record in the third season, missing the playoffs.
10 years later, the 49ers would do the same, winning Super Bowl XXIII and XXIV with future Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Montana. The next year, the legendary team would be embarrassed in the Conference Championship, losing to the New York Giants in a game where the Giants scored five field goals and no touchdowns.
During their run of four straight Championship games, the Cowboys won two straight Super Bowls. In their third season, they fell in the Championship to the 49ers. Five years later, the Denver Broncos would win two straight in the final two years of Hall of Fame quarterback John Elway’s career. The next year, the team missed out on the playoffs, largely due to Elway’s absence.
The final team to achieve back-to-back Super Bowl wins before the Chiefs was the Patriots. In Tom Brady’s 22-year career, he only ever won back–to-back Super Bowls once, in the early 2000s. The year after, the team fell in the divisional round to the Broncos.
Until the Chiefs, no team had ever made it back to the Super Bowl after winning two straight. The dream of three consecutive Lombardi trophies always died before the Super Bowl was played, never after. On Jan 26, 2025, the Chiefs went into their seventh straight AFC Championship with an unprecedented season on the line.
The Championship game against the Bills was close. The Bills, in nearly every postseason since the beginning of Buffalo quarterback Josh Allen’s career, were knocked out by the Chiefs. Be it a 38-24 championship, a 42-36 game where the Bills never got to possess the ball in overtime, or a 27-24 loss sealed by a missed field goal, the Bills seasons were defined by how heartbreaking their loss to the Chiefs was.
It was clear that this weighed heavily on the minds of the Bills. Early mistakes by previously collected players early in the game revealed the true nature of the nerves this game carried. Bills players could say before the game that they weren’t intimidated by the Chiefs, but the play on the field suggested otherwise. After falling to a 21-10 deficit late in the first half, the Bills seemed to collect themselves, scoring two straight touchdowns to go up 22-21 by the end of the third quarter. The teams traded touchdowns, with the Chiefs taking a one-score lead with three minutes left in the game. The score was 32-29, and the Bills had one chance to spoil the Chief’s unprecedented success. On fourth down, the Bills needed only five yards to keep the dream alive. Pressure in his face, Josh Allen lofts one down the field to tight end Dalton Kincaid. The pass is slightly underthrown due to the pressure, but it still hits Kincaid’s hands. The pass falls incomplete. The game was over, and the Chiefs had achieved something unprecedented.
On the other side of the bracket, the Philadelphia Eagles more than doubled their opponent’s score to book their ticket to their second Super Bowl in three years, again against the Chiefs.
All season, the Chiefs have been angling toward a third Super Bowl win. At the beginning of the season, the Chiefs had already opened as Super Bowl favorites. Throughout the season, they won nearly every game they played, only falling in a game against the Bills and week 18 against the Broncos where they didn’t play any of their starters. Again, now that the Chiefs have qualified for their unprecedented Super Bowl. They again open as favorites to take down the Eagles. The Chief’s consistent dominance of the game of football knows no bounds.
The NFL is entering a new era. Players are driving the skill ceiling higher than ever before. Records are being challenged, set and broken every year. Despite the dominance the Patriots showed in the 2010s, they were unable to achieve the same feats as the modern Chiefs. A new dynasty has been born, and at this point, they seem unstoppable.
