Gaining perspective on KC Chiefs’ run of divisional dominance

The Kansas City Chiefs won a nail-biter on Thursday Night Football against the Los Angeles Chargers for control of the AFC West. With the 34-28 win in overtime, Kansas City moves to 10-4, and two games ahead in the division with three games to go.

The Chargers fall to 8-6, looking up at the Chiefs and confirming their playoff position as a Wild Card participant. Kansas City, on the other hand, controls their destiny, and should they win out, have an outstanding opportunity to clinch the #1 seed in the AFC Playoffs.

As awesome as playoff positioning is, history has the potential to be made, and the Chiefs are 3 games away from closing the book on this division for the 6th year in a row. No other team in the history of the AFC West has ever won the division more than five times in a row. Other than the Chiefs currently, there have only been two times an AFC West team has won the division title 5 times, the Denver Broncos from 2011-2015, and the Las Vegas Raiders from 1972-1976.

This run of divisional dominance by the Chiefs is a very rare thing.

To put this stretch of dominance into perspective, the only other longer streaks in the history of the NFL are the Los Angeles Rams from 1973-1979 in which they won 7 straight NFC West division titles and the New England Patriots from 2009-2019 with 11 straight AFC East division titles.

The Kansas City Chiefs, with a likely division title, will have reached rarified air in the history of the NFL. There have only been two other teams to ever win 6 division titles in a row, the Pittsburgh Steelers from 1974-1979 and the Minnesota Vikings from 1973-1978. Outside of the obvious anomaly that is the New England Patriots’ run of dominance, the Kansas City Chiefs will have accomplished a regular-season feat that has not been seen since the late 1970s and something only 3 other teams have ever done (Minnesota, Pittsburgh, New England).

As Chiefs fans, we need to stop and appreciate this era of Kansas City football. We are witnessing excellence the likes of which this division has never seen. Not in 60+ years of existence has a team won more than 5 times in a row. This should not go unnoticed how dominant this Chiefs team has been, and how sustained this run has been whether Alex Smith or Patrick Mahomes is under center.