Steelers Now
NEW ORLEANS — The Pittsburgh Steelers were the first NFL franchise to win four Super Bowl, and they did it in a six-year span in the 1970s, setting the standard for what it would mean for an NFL team to wear the word dynasty.
This year, the Kansas City Chiefs have a chance to win their fourth title as well, certainly joining, and perhaps even surpassing those that came before them.
The Chiefs won Super Bowl LIV after the 2019 season and lost Super Bowl LV after the 2020 season. After an AFC Championship Game loss in 2021, they won back-to-back Super Bowls in 2022 and 2023.
If the Chiefs beat the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LIX on Sunday, they’ll have won four Super Bowls in a six-year span, just like those 1970s Steelers, and they’ll have also won another AFC title in that stretch.
Perhaps most importantly, they’ll be the first team to win three straight Super Bowl titles with a win.
The New England Patriots had the best run of success in league history, winning six Super Bowls, but did it over a 17-year span. Only Tom Brady won all six, and one else won more than three, so it’s hard to call them a coherent dynasty. It’s almost two dynasties, winning three from 2001-04 and three from 2014-18, with only Brady connecting them.
There certainly can be an argument to be made for the San Francisco 49ers, who won five Super Bowls from 1981-94, but no players won all five, and just five won four.
Of the 29 NFL players to win four Super Bowl rings with one team, 22 of them played for the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 1970s, six played with the 49ers in the 1980s and 1990s, and Brady won six with the Pats. That’s it.
Five more could join that group this week: Harris Butker, Chris Jones, Travis Kelce, Patrick Mahomes and James Winchester.
That’s nowhere near the 1970s Steelers, but the game has changed with free agency and a salary cap. It’s a lot harder to keep a team together for as long as the Chiefs have been together. That’s probably why no one has ever won three in a row.
Chiefs wide receiver Justin Watson could also win his fourth Super Bowl ring, though his first one came with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2021, against the Chiefs. He has personally won three straight Super Bowls and would become the first player to win their four consecutively.
Watson is a Pittsburgh-area native. He grew up in South Fayette, and though he was born 20 years after the Steelers ended their 70s run, he certainly understands the comparisons between what those Black and Gold teams did and what the Chiefs are doing right now.
“I think my people back in Pittsburgh are never giving up those Steelers teams with Bradshaw and that defense and everybody else, but it would be unbelievable to be mentioned along teams like that and those 2000s...
