In all three of the Chiefs’ Super Bowl wins they have trailed in the fourth quarter, and this time they also spotted the 49ers a three-point lead in overtime.
This is one they’ll talk about for as long as they play this game, for as long as there are water-cooler debates about the best teams, the ones good enough to be talked about as dynasties.
The Lombardi Packers won five championships, but the singular moment for which they are remembered is Bart Starr blasting in behind Jerry Kramer to beat the Cowboys at the end of the Ice Bowl, a game which they had every reason to lose except one: it wasn’t fathomable for anyone on the Green Bay sideline that they would lose.
The Tom Brady-Bill Belichick Patriots won six championships, and they are all savored in New England like thousand-dollar bottles of wine. But two stick out: the wins over Seattle in Super Bowl LXIX and against the Falcons in Super Bowl LI. They needed a last-minute interception in one and a forever comeback in the other, and maybe both seemed miraculous except by then the Patriots simply knew how to win games like that better than anyone in the sport.
The true dynasties, that’s what binds them. That’s what connects them. And now, into that tapestry, we can officially weave the Patrick Mahomes-Andy Reid Chiefs, who spent large chunks of Super Bowl 2024 looking completely outmatched, who had to come back from 10-0 early and 19-16 late in the fourth and then, at last, from 22-19 in overtime.
“It was awesome,” Mahomes said when it was over, after he’d found Mecole Hardman for a 3-yard touchdown pass with three seconds left in overtime, giving the Chiefs a 25-22 win over the 49ers, a second-straight Lombardi Trophy, and a third championship in five years.
