Why Travis Kelce is the only Chiefs player talking of a historic three-peat

Patrick Mahomes stopped talking about it months ago. Andy Reid told us he wouldn’t be thinking about it, and he’s stayed true to his word. Defensive tackle Chris Jones basically refused to acknowledge that there is even a room, let alone an elephant stationed within it.

Only Travis Kelce, for whom embracing hype ranks just as highly as collecting titles and subbing in as a backup dancer, has truly seized upon the glaringly obvious fact that the Kansas City Chiefs have a shot at NFL immortality this season.

With a three-peat.

No team has ever managed to win three straight Super Bowls, though it must be noted that the old school Green Bay Packers twice won a trio of NFL championships, the latter of which straddled the pre-Super Bowl and Super Bowl eras.

With their victory over the San Francisco 49ers in February, the Chiefs are breathing rare air. When the 2024 campaign begins on Thursday with their home clash against the Baltimore Ravens, they will officially begin the task of what eight previous back-to-back Super Bowl champs have tried, and failed, to do.

A collection of three Super Bowl triumphs is such an unthinkable thing that it has put the NFL world in a bit of a spin. The Chiefs have every right to call themselves the best team in the league, with irrefutable evidence as to why they are so insanely difficult to beat in playoff time. And yet, for many, there is a sense that at some point enough breaks are going to fall against them to crack the streak.

After all, even Tom Brady at the height of his Patriots pomp couldn’t do three in a row, which pretty much says everything about the feat’s difficulty level. Brady, who makes his formal NFL commentary debut on FOX this Sunday with the Dallas Cowboys/Cleveland Browns matchup (4:25 p.m. ET on FOX), himself weighed in on the topic earlier this summer, in an appearance on “The Herd” with Colin Cowherd.

“To win one is extremely difficult, to win two back-to-back like the Chiefs have done — as we know in the history of the sport — nearly impossible,” Brady said. “To win three in a row? There is a reason why no one has done it. To put three of those together … with drafting last, a very hard schedule, all the turnover in free agency, guys continuing to be motivated, it is a big challenge.

“Fortunately, they have a tremendous coach in Andy Reid (who) doesn’t ever look backward. He is not going to say ‘hey, because we were great last year, we’re going to be great again this year.’ He holds those guys accountable. But to win it all again is a momentous task.”

The Chiefs have a process, and it stems from Reid; no nonsense, no bluster, just putting the pieces in place for the system to succeed. That’s why there aren’t any crazy proclamations or over-confident boasts.

It is why Jones said another title is a goal, but not an immediate priority.

“We don’t ever talk about three-peat,” Jones told reporters. “Or the final ultimate goal we are trying to achieve.”

It is also why Reid instantly knew talk of yet another championship would become a topic of high interest, and chose to put it to bed ahead of time. As in, the day after winning the Super Bowl at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.

“You go back to your dark room and the film and the draft coming up and the combine, those things, that’s kind of where you go,” Reid said, still sleep-deprived from the overtime thriller the night before. “You’re not talking ‘three-peat.'”

That same day, Mahomes was asked about a three-peat and said it would be “legendary,” but has not referenced it since.

And even Kelce, ever unfazed by the biggest of challenges, hasn’t gone overboard. He did, however, pepper Cowboys legend Michael Irvin, according to Irvin, with questions of a three-peat, seeking some insight into what stopped a dominant Dallas team from attaining that goal after winning Super Bowls XXVII and XXVIII.

“I believe we have the guys in this room to get it done,” Kelce told reporters during training camp. “Keep that confidence and focus and make those plays like we did later on in the season.”

History, for what it’s worth, is not on their side.

When the Cowboys went back-to-back in the 1993 season, three-peats were all the rage, an established part of the sporting lexicon. Months earlier, Michael Jordan had led the Chicago Bulls to the third of that dynasty’s initial batch of titles, then announced his wish to play baseball. 

Speaking of the diamond, the Toronto Blue Jays had just repeated as champs and looked invincible, though the following MLB season would be scrapped due to strike action.

Three-peat was all Irvin could talk about at the time. “We will get our third straight,” he told Terry Bradshaw on FOX NFL Sunday, leading up to the Cowboys’ meeting with the 49ers in the 1994 NFC Championship Game. “We will do something that’s never been done before.”

However, under Barry Switzer, who had replaced title-winning coach Jimmy Johnson, they lost to San Francisco, before going on to claim another set of rings the next year.

Pro football is the only sport without a fully-fledged three-peater. In the NBA, the Bulls did it twice, the Kobe-Shaq Lakers did it from 2000-2002, while Bill Russell’s Boston Celtics clinched eight straight championships.

In modern baseball, both the New York Yankees have accomplished it, as well as the New York Islanders in the NHL.

Bradshaw remains part of the FOX NFL crew, and told me in 2020 how fine the line of sustained success is.

“Even with the best team, it doesn’t take much to go against you and stop you in your tracks,” Bradshaw said. “A couple of bad breaks, football is a game of small margins, and there it goes.”

The 1970s Steelers are the only team to go back-to-back twice, while even the Miami Dolphins at the start of that decade couldn’t parlay a perfect season into three straight.

Joe Montana’s San Francisco 49ers did the double act, plus John Elway’s Denver Broncos, with Elway retiring after the second. 

As for Brady, despite his incredible record haul of seven Super Bowl rings, only once was he able to win in consecutive years with the Patriots, to cap off the 2003 and 2004 seasons.

The Chiefs’ offseason was not splashy, but was effective in keeping its core group together, the most important move being Jones’ long-term extension.

The pieces are in place and whatever history says, the key reality is that no team is more experienced, or better set-up, to shine it matters most.

“We know how to win,” Mahomes said recently. 

Martin Rogers is a columnist for FOX Sports. Follow him on Twitter @MRogersFOX.

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