¹ú²úÍâÁ÷Íø

By Jeffri Chadiha | Sept. 7, 2020

Plenty of great teams have tried. The Patriots, obviously, won six championships over the last two decades, and they couldn't repeat more than once. The 2011 Green Bay Packers went 15-1 -- and enjoyed a 19-game winning streak, which is the second-longest run in ¹ú²úÍâÁ÷Íøhistory -- but they didn't even reach the NFC Championship Game one year after beating the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XLV. The 2014 Seattle Seahawks did make it all the way back to the Super Bowl after trouncing Denver in Super Bowl XLVIII, only to see their back-to-back hopes dashed when Patriots cornerback Malcolm Butler intercepted Russell Wilson's potential game-winning pass.

This is what happens when champions try to build dynasties. No matter how badly they want to stay on top -- and the Chiefs have labeled this season as their "Run It Back Tour" -- they soon learn it's not as easy as it sounds.

"It's rare that you see a team come out and say they're going to repeat after winning a championship," said ¹ú²úÍâÁ÷ÍøNetwork analyst Terrell Davis, the Hall of Fame running back with the Denver Broncos when they won Super Bowls during the 1997 and 1998 seasons. "This isn't basketball. It takes a lot of different pieces to win a title. And once you get in that position to repeat, it's not like it's best-out-of-five out there in the playoffs. You have one off day -- hell, one off quarter -- and it's over. I know the Chiefs had a lot of comeback wins (in the postseason), but you can't count on that every year."

How teams fared in season after winning Super Bowl, last 20 years

The Chiefs are counting on more than just a resilient spirit. They return 18 of 22 starters from their 2019 squad, with the most critical piece being Pro Bowl quarterback and Super Bowl LIV Most Valuable Player Patrick Mahomes. He'll be surrounded by an offense that includes a variety of dynamic receivers and a new weapon in rookie running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire, the team's first-round pick in April. The team also has been busy investing in key components of its foundation for the future, with long-term deals going to Mahomes, Jones, tight end Travis Kelce, head coach Andy Reid and general manager Brett Veach.

The Chiefs have been so confident, players like Jones and wide receiver Tyreek Hill have predicted they will win as many as five to seven championships in the coming years. Other teammates have been far less brash, largely because they understand the degree to which arrogance can underm`ine future achievements.

"I feel like that's the biggest thing that happens when guys have success and get to win a Super Bowl," said defensive end Frank Clark. "You have prima donnas, a guy wanting to go off and do this, guys coming into work with different mindsets that aren't focused on the one goal, which is to win a championship. I feel like that's where our strength is, and we haven't wavered from that. We have that short-term memory. Yeah, we won the Super Bowl last year, but that was last year."

That is a critical perspective for any team to have after winning a Super Bowl. When the San Francisco 49ers won their first Super Bowl, during the 1981 season, they were riding the same type of emotional high the Chiefs enjoyed at the end of last year.

"We got into this 'Who's next?' mode of thinking," said former 49ers center Randy Cross. "It came up during our first Super Bowl run, and by the time we left Detroit (after beating Cincinnati in Super Bowl XVI), we were still thinking it. We wanted to keep playing. But by that point, there was no one else to beat ... Of course, we also missed the playoffs the next year because we spent the whole offseason partying like crazy."

Former Packers head coach Mike Holmgren said his team blew an opportunity to repeat -- losing to Denver, a sizable underdog, in Super Bowl XXXII -- because they became too full of themselves.

"I just couldn't get the players to believe Denver was really good," Holmgren said. "I tried being nice. I tried yelling and screaming. I kicked their butts in practice. But they never bought in. I still see [players on that Packers team] today who tell me they thought they should've handled those guys."

Davis said the Broncos were better prepared to defend their title because, unlike those 49ers and this year's Chiefs, they had a team filled with older veterans, including quarterback John Elway, defensive end Neil Smith and safety Steve Atwater. Those players were well into their 30s when Denver beat Holmgren's Packers in Super Bowl XXXII. They knew how fortunate they were to win one championship. They also understood they wouldn't be able to win a second one a year later without a certain level of humility.

That approach, according to Davis, had plenty do with a home playoff loss to Jacksonville in 1996. The Jaguars were in their second year as an expansion franchise, and the Broncos were a 13-3 team that held the top playoff seed in the AFC. When that Divisional Round game ended with a 30-27 loss, Davis and tight end Shannon Sharpe sat on the bench, watching distraught Denver fans trudge out of that stadium. When those players finally stood up and walked into the locker room, they made a vow to each other that they were never going to feel like that again.

"It turned out to be a good thing that we lost that Jacksonville game," Davis said. "It put a lot of paranoia in us. We knew nothing was guaranteed. And when we got back to the Super Bowl the next year (in the 1998 season), there was nobody saying, 'We got this.' We knew the Falcons had just beaten the Vikings (Minnesota had gone 15-1 in the regular season that year). If we didn't play our best against them, we would've wound up losing."

The Chiefs have one obvious parallel to that Broncos team: They know what it's like to lose a heartbreaking playoff game during a magical season. The New England Patriots came to Arrowhead Stadium for the 2018 AFC Championship Game and completely ruined a storybook year for Kansas City. Mahomes had emerged as a superstar in his first season as a starter, throwing for 5,097 yards and 50 touchdowns on his way to claiming league MVP honors, and the offense led the league in scoring. When that game concluded, Patriots quarterback Tom Brady actually walked into the Chiefs' locker room and talked briefly with the crestfallen Mahomes, encouraging the young quarterback to believe in the process that awaited him.

It was excruciating for Reid to watch his team go through an experience like that. Reid knew first-hand what it was like to lose on such a lofty stage -- he lost three straight NFC Championship Games while coaching in Philadelphia -- and he also was an assistant coach on that Green Bay Packers team that missed its own opportunity to repeat after Davis and the Broncos upset them.

When asked about the challenge of defending a title, Reid said, "You have to have the right mindset, and you literally have to take today and work on it to try to get myself better, and do it each play, and then do it tomorrow ... When you get into games, whether you win or lose, you have to make sure that you learn and continue to grow from those games. On top of that, every once in a while, you need to catch a break here or there. The ball's not round. It bounces funny, and you hope it bounces your way, and you get a couple breaks in there."

The main reason the Chiefs feel so good about repeating this season has nothing to do with talent. It's their chemistry that sets them apart. This is a group that endured many obstacles in 2019, including injuries to key starters like Mahomes, Hill and left tackle Eric Fisher. Those losses emboldened the Chiefs even more as they set their sights on a championship.

That collective effort only made a close locker room even tighter. In fact, two wide receivers took financial hits to stick with the team because of that camaraderie: Sammy Watkins accepted a pay cut on the final year of his contract, while DeMarcus Robinson accepted a one-year deal instead of pursuing a long-term possibility as an unrestricted free agent.

"We have great guys in the locker room, great people in the facility, and overall, it's just a fun atmosphere every single time you come to work," Kelce said. "Guys don't want to leave that. Guys want to keep building off of that."

It's also a critical element of remaining on top. Looking back on the success the Dallas Cowboys enjoyed in the 1990s (they won three Super Bowls in four seasons between 1992 and 1995), former fullback Daryl Johnston said the bonds within the team were as essential as the star power.

"You could see we had the talent, but there was more to our run than that," said Johnston, who now works as a broadcaster for Fox. "People talk about your football family being your second family. That's what we had in Dallas."

Added Davis: "People assume that the same team that wins is the one that comes back next year, and it's not. It's a different team. You have new draft picks who are being asked to contribute. There are guys who are gone who made a difference that people don't even think about. It could be a player who made one or two big plays over the course of the year, and now somebody else has his spot. Those are things the average person may not see, but as a team, you feel it."

The Chiefs had a handful of players who fell into that category. Linebacker Reggie Ragland went from sitting on the bench to being a key cog in improving a shaky run defense. Cornerback Kendall Fuller moved to safety when rookie safety Juan Thornhill sustained a torn ACL late in the season, while the offensive line benefited from the arrival of guard Stefen Wisniewski when injuries plagued that unit. All are gone now, along with starting running back Damien Williams and guard Laurent Duvernay-Tardif, both of whom opted out for the season.

There is certainly excitement about some of the new faces around the Chiefs. Edwards-Helaire already seems like an early favorite to win Offensive Rookie of the Year in this offense, while second-round pick Willie Gay has the speed and athleticism to be a difference-maker at linebacker. However, Kansas City will open the year without two critical defenders. Suspensions will keep both defensive tackle Mike Pennel (two games) and cornerback Bashaud Breeland (four games) on the sidelines during the first month of play.

Those losses could prove to be problematic. The Chiefs won the Super Bowl largely because that defense improved down the stretch, allowing just 11.5 points per game during the final six weeks of the season. The Chiefs want to maintain that standard -- "We expect to pick up where we left off last season, as one of the best defenses in the National Football League," said safety Tyrann Mathieu -- and they know they will face some explosive offenses early in the year, including the Texans, Chargers and Ravens within the first three weeks. If the Chiefs stumble on defense, a fast start could be harder to achieve.

Staying healthy also will be essential.

"We started 6-0 the year after we won the Super Bowl, and then I got injured," said ¹ú²úÍâÁ÷ÍøNetwork analyst and Hall of Fame quarterback Kurt Warner when asked about the St. Louis Rams' failed attempt at a repeat in the 2000 season. "We went from being a team competing for home-field advantage to a team fighting to make the playoffs. We were on fire, and then we just got off track. That kind of thing affects your confidence."

There will be no shortage of quality teams looking to derail Kansas City's hopes. As much as the Chiefs talk about winning a second straight championship, it's difficult to know how they'll handle the weekly pressure that comes with being everyone's measuring stick. It can be exhausting to know every opponent is giving you their best shot. As Warner said, "Everybody says the right things -- that the big contracts won't affect them, or that winning it all won't be an issue. But there really is a mental battle that comes with this."

The Broncos used to push themselves with little motivational tools during that 1998 season. If they won the weekend before, head coach Mike Shanahan would hold a more casual practice the following Friday, where players could wear baseball caps and labor without pads or helmets. The sessions became known as "Hat Days," and they were sacred. There were moments during actual games when players would huddle and demand that nobody make any mental mistakes, lest they be forced to actually work a little harder in practice the following Friday.

The Chiefs haven't gotten to that place just yet, but they will need to be creative in how they inspire themselves. They no longer can use the 50-year Super Bowl drought or the pain of that AFC Championship Game as fuel.

"It actually feels like (practices) are more ramped-up this year," said right tackle Mitchell Schwartz. "Whether that's guys eager to play with COVID, not being able to have OTAs and stuff, or whether it's feeling the urgency of what we need to do to come off as defending champs and knowing we're going to get everyone's best shot, this year, guys are flying around. There's a lot of good competition."

The first real opportunity the Chiefs have had to savor their Super Bowl win this summer came on Aug. 29, the final day of their training camp. They held that practice in Arrowhead Stadium, with 5,000 season-ticket holders receiving the opportunity to watch as a steady rain rolled through the area. At the end of the session, players and coaches gathered at midfield and glanced at the flagpole behind the massive video board. A few moments later, the image of team owner Clark Hunt and his brother, Lamar Hunt Jr., appeared, as they slowly raised the championship flag for last year's Super Bowl win.

The ceremony lasted maybe 10 minutes, tops. When it ended, the players slowly filed into the locker room, content with the notion that training camp was finally over. The real work now lies ahead. The Chiefs realize it won't be easy.

"I think when you play this sport, the best thing about it is, you get to start over every single year," Mahomes said. "Every single year, no matter if you won the Super Bowl the last year, no matter if you lost in the AFC Championship Game, no matter if you didn't make the playoffs. You get a clean slate, and you get to go out there and compete every single year. You have to have the passion and the mindset that you're going to go out there every single day and execute every single rep so you can go out there and ... have those parades, be able to enjoy it with your teammates and your family and your friends.

"Once you enjoy it, you come back and do it again the next year."