Which NFL playoff teams are feeling the heat, and which are just happy to be there?
The Chiefs aren’t just chasing the first-ever Super Bowl three-peat. If Kansas City lifts another Lombardi Trophy next month, it would mark the first major American professional team to win three straight championships since the Shaq-Kobe Lakers (2000-02). It would be the greatest achievement in NFL history, a feat once-unthinkable in an era of parity.
It could not be done by the Packers, who missed the 1968 playoffs after Vince Lombardi left the sideline. It was snatched from the 1974 Dolphins in a “Sea of Hands.” Pittsburgh’s bid was snuffed out in the 1976 AFC Championship by John Madden’s Raiders. The 1980 Steelers aged out of the postseason. The 1990 49ers came closest, with Roger Craig fumbling away the three-peat, and Matt Bahr sending the Giants to Super Bowl XXV with his fifth field goal, as time expired. Barry Switzer dropped the baton from Jimmy Johnson, as the Cowboys surrendered the first 21 points of the 1994 NFC Championship in San Francisco. The 1999 Broncos never had a chance, replacing John Elway with Brian Griese. The 2005 Patriots regressed, losing as a 4-seed to Jake Plummer’s Broncos in the divisional round.
It would surprise no one to see the Chiefs’ three-peat bid end in their first playoff game. In a season that featured 11 one-possession wins, no games with more than 30 points and multiple fortuitous endings, Kansas City (15-2) survived with muscle memory, with savvy, with defense, a Hall of Fame coaching staff and one of the greatest quarterbacks of all-time.
