Will Kansas City join the Super Bowl Back-to-Back winners club?
By Chris Lawton
Back-to-back wins are hard to come by in any sport. In the NFL the last Back-to-back Super Bowl winners were the Patriots in the 2003 and 2004 seasons.
They were led by Tom Brady, who at the time was winning his second and third NFL titles. Now, the Kansas City Chiefs, led by Patrick Mahomes, have the chance to become the first back-to-back Super Bowl winners in twenty years.
That is because Super Bowl LVII will feature a contest between the Kansas City Chiefs–last year’s Super Bowl Champions, and the San Francisco 49ers. The Niners may not have won the Lombardi trophy since 1995 (Super Bowl XXIX) when they defeated the Chargers 49-26. But in an ironic twist, they are facing the team that beat them in their latest Super Bowl appearance (Super Bowl LIV which they lost 20-31 to Kansas City).
Lest we forget too, the Chiefs had a shot at back-to-back wins the year after defeating the Niners on the biggest stage, only to fall heavily 31-9 to Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Super Bowl LV. So both teams have plenty of motivation. To become champions, but for the Niners, there is an element of revenge, while for the Chiefs there is an element of wanting to make history where they missed out before.
Will it be back-to-back for the Chiefs, or number six for San Francisco? We’ll just have to wait and see. In the meantime, though it might be fun to look back at the previous repeat Super Bowl Winners.
So, let’s see who they are.
1966-1967 Green Bay Packers Super Bowl I & II
Two-season Record 21-6-1 Playoff record 5-0
Back-to-back Super Bowl Points for 68 Points Against 24
34-12 Average Super Bowl winning margin
Vince Lombardi arrived in Green Bay in 1959 and took over a bad Packers team. They had last won the NFL title in 1944. In the intervening seasons before Lombardi arrived, they went 55-107-3. Including a 1-10-1 season the year before he took the helm.
In his first year, they had a winning record, by his second year they were in the NFL Championship game. By year three they were NFL Champions.
The Packers would win three NFL titles before the AFL-NFL merger and the dawning of the Super Bowl era. They were back-to-back champions in 1961-1962 and had gone 68-23-3 under Lombardi before embarking on their Super Bowl Dynasty.
Bart Starr would win the first two Super Bowl MVP awards. And Lombardi would step down as Coach of Green Bay after changing them from doormats to the most dominant team in the League.
1972-73 Miami Dolphins Super Bowl VII & VIII
Two season Record 26-2 Playoff record 6-0
Back-to-back Super Bowl Points for 38 Points Against 14
24-7 Average Super Bowl winning margin
Don Shula coached the Miami Dolphins for 26 years. During that time the team put together a 257-133-2 record and appeared in 5 Super Bowls. They only won two, however, and that came in a time in the early Seventies during a short but dominant Dynasty.
Between 1971 and 1973 the Dolphins went 36-5-1 and appeared in three consecutive Super Bowl games (they lost Super Bowl VI). The pinnacle came in 1972 when they had a perfect season and the only perfect season in NFL history going 17-0.
In 1974 the dynasty ended when the Dolphins lost “the sea of hands game” to the Oakland Raiders. The short-lived World Football League also saw the breakup of this team.
1974-75 Pittsburgh Steelers Super Bowl IX & X
Two season Record 22-5-1 Playoff record 6-0
Back-to-back Super Bowl Points for 37 Points Against 23
Allowing for a rounding 19-12 Super Bowl winning margin
After years of on-field under-achievement, the Pittsburgh Steelers went on an incredible run in the 1970’s. The ‘immaculate reception’ was the catalyst to seeing this team become a perennial challenger.
That game really kick-started something for Pittsburgh. From 1972-79 they would go 88-27-1, make 8 consecutive playoff appearances and win 4 Super Bowl contests. It was a transformative moment for the team.
Head Coach Chuck Noll turned the team around and they built brilliantly through the Draft. These two Super Bowl wins were built around a dominant D (the legendary Steel Curtain) and a strong ground game.
1978-79 Pittsburgh Steelers Super Bowl XIII & XIV
Two season Record 26-6 Playoff record 6-0
Back-to-back Super Bowl Points for 66 Points Against 50
33-25 Average Super Bowl winning margin
The team of the Seventies really earned their title by winning four Super Bowl titles in six years.
Whilst the strong defense and running game remained, the NFL had opened up passing opportunities towards the end of the decade. Quarterback Terry Bradshaw took full advantage as the team became much more explosive offensively. And won back-to-back Super Bowl MVP awards along the way.
Home Field advantage was phenomenal for Pittsburgh. Over these two Championship seasons, they would go 15-1 at home in the regular season.
1988-89 San Francisco 49ers Super Bowl XXIII & XXIV
Two season Record 24-8 Playoff record 6-0
Back-to-back Super Bowl Points for 75 Points Against 26
Allowing for rounding 38-13 Super Bowl winning margin
As Lombardi rebuilt the Packers and Noll the Steelers so, Bill Walsh did the same in San Francisco. The designer of the West Coast Offence had an impact on the way teams approached the passing game for years to come.
Walsh was 92-59-1 as the Coach of the Niners winning three Super Bowls including the first of this Dynasty. George Seifert inherited the team the year after and led them to the second of these back-to-back titles.
Seifert would go 98-30 as Coach of the Niners, but he would only get credit as a Super Bowl winning Coach for his ‘own team’ when San Francisco won a fifth title in 1994.
1992-93 Dallas Cowboys Super Bowl XXVII & XXVIII
Two season Record 25-7 Playoff record 6-0
Back-to-back Super Bowl Points for 82 Points Against 30
41-15 Average Super Bowl winning margin
Buffalo Bills fans may want to look away now. Most people know that in the early Nineties, the Bills were perennial regular-season winners but lost four straight Super Bowls. What is also true is that they lost the last of those two Super Bowls heavily. And those heavy defeats (52-17 & 30-13) were inflicted by the Dallas Cowboys.
Jimmy Johnson came to the Cowboys in 1989 and built through the Draft following a blockbuster trade with Minnesota, sending Herschel Walker for a boatload of Draft capital.
In Johnson’s second season a 7-9 record saw him named Coach of the Year. But that didn’t really prepare the rest of the NFL for what was coming. From 1991-1995 they went 60-20, made 4 NFC Championship games, and won 3 Super Bowl titles.
The ‘triplets’, QB Troy Aikman, running back Emmitt Smith, and receiver Michael Irvin were the lynchpins on Offence. Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and Johnson had a public breakup. So, the third Super Bowl the Cowboys won in four years came in 1995 under Coach Barry Switzer.
Switzer, like Seifert in San Francisco, inherited a great team. In his first two seasons, they went 24-8, went to two NFC title games and won a Super Bowl. He was only there for 4 seasons however and went 16-16 in his last two years. Cowboys fans may legitimately wonder how dominant they could have been for how long if Jimmy Johnson had stayed longer at the helm.
1997-1998 Denver Broncos Super Bowl XXXII & XXXIII
Two season Record 26-6 Playoff record 7-0
Back-to-back Super Bowl Points for 65 Points Against 43
Allowing for rounding 33-22 Super Bowl winning margin
The John Elway era can be split in two in Denver. Under the Hall of Famer, the Broncos went 90-52-1 in their first nine seasons. But they lost all three of their Super Bowl appearances along the way. By some pretty hefty margins too (39-20 to the Giants, 42-10 to Washington, and 55-10 to San Francisco).
Between 1995 & 1998 the short but brilliant pre-injury career of hard runner Terrell Davis changed all that. After rushing for 1,117 as a rookie, the Broncos unleashed Davis in 1996. Between 1996 and 1998 he rushed for 5,296 yards and 49 touchdowns in 47 games. At the same time the Broncos went 39-9 and in 1997-98 won their two back-to-back Super Bowl titles.
Davis was the NFL Offensive Player of the Year in 1996, Super Bowl MVP in 1997, and NFL MVP in 1998. Elway finally found a back he could combine with to get over the line. And rode off into the sunset with a storybook ending to his career taking the Super Bowl MVP award in his last career game in 1998.
2003-04 New England Patriots Super Bowl XXXVIII & XXXIX
Two season Record 28-4 Playoff record 6-0
Back-to-back Super Bowl Points for 56 Points Against 50
28-25 Average Super Bowl winning margin
Back in 2001, the Patriots were 0-2. Starting QB Drew Bledsoe, who had signed a 10-year contract extension earlier that year went down injured. Enter sixth-round Draft Pick backup, Tom Brady, and the rest is history. Although you might argue that without the Tuck Rule Game, the Patriots’ dominance may never have happened. In retrospect, looking back at Brady’s career that seems unlikely.
Over 19 years in New England Brady would go 219-64 as the starter for the Pats. During that time New England won 17 AFC East titles, along with nine conference titles and six NFL championships.
This early Dynasty was just the beginning. Their original win in Super Bowl XXXVI had come as an upset. But now they were well and truly at the top of the NFL pile with 3 Super Bowl wins in 3 appearances in 4 years.
The games always seemed to be close. But Brady always set them up for the win, and if it came down to a kick to win it, Adam Vinatieri always delivered in the clutch moments.
Can Mahomes and the Chiefs add themselves to this illustrious list? Or will San Fran prevail? We will have our answer by the time this weekend is over.
Feature Image Credit: NFL.com
CHRIS LAWTON
CFL ANALYST
Chris originally started following the NFL with the ‘first wave’ of fans when it was shown on Channel 4 in the 1980’s. He has been a keen supporter of the Miami Dolphins since 1983. Chris first encountered the CFL in 2016 and instantly fell in love with the Canadian game. He has been writing about the CFL 2017. Chris has a degree in history, postgraduate degree in librarianship and can be found on twitter as @CFLfanUK