Those who do not learn from history … may not be fortunate enough to repeat it.
Repeat champions are something of a rare occurrence in the NFL. In 57 Super Bowl matchups, there have been just eight teams to hoist the Lombardi Trophy in back-to-back seasons. While others have reached the Super Bowl in back-to-back years, not all have been able to finish the job in the ultimate game of the season.
With a Super Bowl 58 appearance on the horizon, the already-elite Kansas City Chiefs have an opportunity to join some legendary company in NFL history if they finish out the 2023 NFL season with hardware. If not, they’ll be one of several teams to have missed out on the opportunity to etch names in record books.
Here are the teams that have won back-to-back Super Bowls, and those who missed their opportunity to enter the record books:
Back-to-back Super Bowl winners
In NFL history, there have been eight teams to finish consecutive seasons with Super Bowl victories. They are as follows (year of season in parenthesis):
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Green Bay Packers (1966, 1967); Defeated Kansas City Chiefs, Oakland Raiders.
Miami Dolphins (1972, 1973); Defeated Washington, Minnesota Vikings.
Pittsburgh Steelers (1974, 1975); Defeated Minnesota Vikings, Dallas Cowboys.
Pittsburgh Steelers (1978, 1979); Defeated Dallas Cowboys, Los Angeles Rams.
San Francisco 49ers (1988, 1989); Defeated Cincinnati Bengals, Denver Broncos.
Dallas Cowboys (1992, 1993); Defeated Buffalo Bills, Buffalo Bills.
Denver Broncos (1997, 1998); Defeated Green Bay Packers, Atlanta Falcons.
New England Patriots (2003, 2004); Defeated Carolina Panthers, Philadelphia Eagles.
The Chiefs will have their second opportunity to win back-to-back titles when they face the 49ers in Super Bowl 58. They defeated the 49ers for the first Super Bowl of the Patrick Mahomes era in Super Bowl 54, before losing to Tom Brady and the Buccaneers in Super Bowl 55.
To that end, there have been a number of teams who have made it to back-to-back Super Bowls, but haven’t been able to close the deal:
Dallas Cowboys: Won Super Bowl 12 (beat Broncos), lost Super Bowl 13 (vs. Steelers)
Washington: Won Super Bowl 17 (beat Dolphins), lost Super Bowl 18 (vs. Raiders)
Green Bay Packers: Won Super Bowl 31 (beat Patriots), lost Super Bowl 32 (vs. Broncos)
Seattle Seahawks: Won Super Bowl 48 (beat Broncos), lost Super Bowl 49 (vs. Patriots)
New England Patriots: Won Super Bowl 51 (beat Falcons), lost Super Bowl 52 (vs. Eagles)
Kansas City Chiefs: Won Super Bowl 54 (beat, lost Super Bowl 55 (lost to Buccaneers)
No team has ever achieved a threepeat in the Super Bowl era. The Packers, though, won the NFL championship game in 1966 before winning both Super Bowls 1 and 2 for an unofficial threepeat.