The Kansas City Chiefs fell short of matching the Pittsburgh Steelers’ historic 1970s dynasty of winning four Super Bowls in a six-year span as they got crushed by the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LIX by a score of 40-22.
The Steelers accomplished that historic feat starting in 1974. They won back-to-back Super Bowls twice from 1974 to 1975 and then 1978 and 1979. Those years were defined by the Steel Curtain defense, and a long list of Hall of Famers on both sides of the ball. They won against the Minnesota Vikings and Dallas Cowboys the first time around and then the Cowboys and Los Angeles Rams the second time around.
In 1976, the Steelers appeared in the conference championship game, losing to the Oakland Raiders, and that was the closest they came to adding to the six-year excellence.
As for the Chiefs, they kicked off their span with a win in 2019 against the San Francisco 49ers. They have been in the Super Bowl every year since, other than 2021 when they lost to the Cincinnati Bengals in the AFC Championship Game. They also lost in 2020 to the Tom Brady-led Tampa Bay Buccaneers. They won two straight with a chance at a three-peat, but fell short this season.
There have been a few other instances throughout NFL history where other teams were relatively close to this accomplishment.
The Buffalo Bills famously competed in four-consecutive Super Bowls from 1990 to 1993, losing all of them.
The New England Patriots came close a couple times with three in a six year span on two different occasions. They participated in a fourth during the second span from 2014 to 2018, but lost to the Nick Foles-led Eagles in 2017. The Eagles have now helped the Steelers maintain sole possession of this record twice.
The San Francisco 49ers won four in the span of nine years from 1981 to 1989. Still an impressive feat, but they didn’t threaten to join this rare club in any six-year span.
The Dallas Cowboys appeared in six from 1970 to 1978, but lost three of them.
Here’s one impressive statistic that defines the Steelers and Chiefs dynasties in different ways. The Steelers had 22 players that were a part of the team for all four Super Bowl runs. The Chiefs have had just five: Mahomes, TE Travis Kelce, DT Chris Jones, K Harrison Butker, and LS James Winchester. In the era of salary caps and players holding out or demanding trades, the fact that the Chiefs even came close to matching the Steelers is quite impressive.
Because the Chiefs won two in the last three years, they will now need to win two of the next three to match the 70s Steelers. Chances seem pretty good that the Steelers’ impressive feat will stand for many more years to come.
