With the Kansas City Chiefs finally returning to Super Bowl glory many fans are now hoping this is the start of a dynasty, but history may say otherwise.
The Kansas City Chiefs are the Super Bowl champions of the world. I still smile from ear to ear every time I say or type that. This last week has been a wonderful blur of happiness. Seeing the Chiefs being celebrated all over the national media has been amazing. Getting to watch the championship parade on Wednesday was a lifelong dream come true. Inevitably, the further we get from last Sunday’s win, the more attention starts to turn to the future.
I think it’s normal for people to see the defending champions as a favorite to win again the following season. For the Chiefs, the fact that they are led by Patrick Mahomes, the most talented young quarterback in the NFL, makes them all the more popular as a pick to win it all again. Mahomes’ young age and incredible talent has led many, both locally and nationally, to ask if the Chiefs could be on the verge of becoming the NFL’s next dynasty.
The New England Patriots have dominated the NFL over the past 19 seasons. They have won 6 Super Bowls and appeared in 3 more. You throw in 4 additional appearances in the AFC Championship game and you have a team that has been one of the best teams in the NFL for two decades. With Tom Brady‘s play starting to decline and his future with the Patriots in question for the first time, it looks like the Patriots’ dynasty may finally be coming to an end. Which means there may be an opening for a new team, like the Chiefs, to fill that void.
Here’s the problem, history says that the New England Patriots are an exception. Teams simply don’t dominate the NFL over such a long period of time. Over these past two decades there have been several other teams led by Hall of Fame-caliber quarterbacks with the same chance to build their own dynasty, but for one reason or another, they have all fallen short.
I’m not here to tell you that the Chiefs can’t do it. If any team in the NFL is positioned to win multiple Super Bowls over the next ten years, it’s the Kansas City Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes. However, the Chiefs aren’t the first team with an amazing quarterback to think they could do it. So I thought today I’d take a look at five other teams that thought they were on the verge of their own dynasty. Where did they fall short? Is there anything we can take away from them as we look to Kansas City’s future?
Let’s start with the team that probably came the closest to pulling it off.