Next hurdle for the champion Chiefs is the 1st Super Bowl 3-peat
By JOSH DUBOW
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The Kansas City Chiefs ended a nearly two-decade drought without a repeat champion in the NFL.
Now they will go for an unprecedented three Super Bowl wins in a row.
The Chiefs beat the San Francisco 49ers 25-22 in overtime to win the Super Bowl on Sunday, following another three-point win over Philadelphia a year ago.
Kansas City became the first team since the New England Patriots in 2003-04 to win back-to-back titles, ending the longest streak without a repeat champion in NFL history.
The Chiefs are the ninth team to win consecutive Super Bowl titles since the game was created in the 1966 season to match up the champions of the NFL and AFL.
None of the teams to win back-to-back Super Bowls even made it back to the title game the following season with three falling short in conference championship games.
Pittsburgh lost to the Oakland Raiders in the 1976 AFC title game after winning it all the previous two seasons, San Francisco fell to the New York Giants in the 1990 NFC title game to end a three-peat bid and Dallas lost to the 49ers four years later.
The Patriots fell short in the divisional round after their back-to-back championships with Miami doing the same in the 1974 season.
The other three repeat champions failed to reach the playoffs: the 1968 Green Bay Packers, the 1980 Steelers and the 1999 Denver Broncos.
It's been more than two decades since any team three-peated in the NFL, NBA, NHL or Major League Baseball.
The Los Angeles Lakers were the last to do it in any of those leagues, winning the NBA Finals from 2000-02.
The New York Yankees were the last baseball team to do it from 1998-2000 and the New York Islanders the last in the NHL from 1980-83.
COMEBACK KID
Patrick Mahomes is truly the comeback kid in the postseason after rallying the Chiefs for his third Super Bowl title in five seasons.
Mahomes has trailed by double-digits in all three of his Super Bowl wins, also leading comebacks against the 49ers in the 2019 season and Philadelphia last season. All other quarterbacks have combined to do it four times in 52 tries, with Tom Brady doing it in two of his seven championships and Doug Williams and Drew Brees doing it once.
Mahomes has engineered five double-digit comebacks in his playoff career in seven tries — one shy of Brady's career record accomplished in 14 attempts. While Mahomes has a .714 mark in that scenario, all other quarterbacks have just a .127 mark since QB starts began being tracked in 1950.
At age 28, Mahomes is close to catching the career playoff accomplishments of all quarterbacks other than Brady.
His 15 playoff wins are one shy of Joe Montana for second most behind Brady's 35 and he is one of five QBs with three Super Bowl wins. Brady has seven, Montana and Terry Bradshaw have four and Troy Aikman has three.
Mahomes already moved past Peyton Manning into fifth place with 41 career TD passes in the postseason and needs just four more to catch Montana and Aaron Rodgers for second place. Brady leads that category with 88.
SUPER BOWL HEARTBREAK
Kyle Shanahan has been on the verge of winning a Super Bowl three times as either a head coach or coordinator only to have it snatched away at the last minute.
Shanahan's teams have held a fourth-quarter lead in all three trips to the title game but have been unable to hold on for the win.
He was offensive coordinator for Atlanta in Super Bowl 51 when the Falcons blew a 28-3 second-half lead and lost to New England in overtime.
Then as head coach in San Francisco, Shanahan's 49ers blew a 10-point fourth quarter lead in Super Bowl 54 before losing 31-20 to the Chiefs.
The 49ers held a 10-point lead in the first half on Sunday and held three separate three-point leads in the fourth quarter or overtime before losing.
Shanahan is the only head coach to lose two Super Bowls after leading by double digits.
The chances anyone would lose all three of those games are infinitesimal. According to ESPN's win probability model, the Falcons' chances to win peaked at 99.6%, while the 49ers peaked at 98.1% in Super Bowl 54 and 87.7% this season.
The odds of all three happening are about one out of 100,000.
JUST FOR KICKS
San Francisco rookie Jake Moody's record for longest field goal in a Super Bowl lasted less than two quarters.
Moody made a 55-yarder early in the second quarter for the first points in the game only to be eclipsed by Kansas City's Harrison Butker, who hit a 57-yarder in the third quarter just 24:47 later in game action.
Moody did earn another record when he made a 53-yarder late in regulation to become the first player to hit two field goals of at least 50 yards in the same Super Bowl. Butker, who also kicked a 53-yarder against Tampa Bay three years ago, is the only other kicker to make two in a career.
Butker is 6 for 7 on field goals of at least 50 yards in his postseason career, passing Adam Vinatieri for the most ever in a career. Butker also has the record with nine career made field goals in the Super Bowl.
The seven combined field goals by Butker (four) and Moody (three) were also a record.
NO RETURNS
For the first time ever in a Super Bowl there were no kick returns.
With the NFL trying to reduce the number of returns to cut down on injuries, the number of kick returns has been diminishing in recent years. But never before did no one attempt to make one.
Butker sent all seven kicks into the end zone where the 49ers settled for touchbacks, while Moody did the same on his six tries with the Chiefs opting not to return any of them.
