Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes (15) scrambles during the first...

Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes (15) scrambles during the first half of the AFC Championship NFL football game against the Buffalo Bills, Sunday, Jan. 26, 2025, in Kansas City, Mo. Credit: AP/Charlie Riedel

Shortly after Patrick Mahomes won Super Bowl LVIII in overtime in Las Vegas last year, he had a list of things he knew he needed to do. There was a trip to Disneyland the next morning, a parade in Kansas City to attend later in the week. The usual spoils of a championship that have become his routine.

“And then,” he said, “we’re going for three.”

Tight end Travis Kelce, standing on the stage with the Lombardi Trophy in one hand and confetti falling all around him, had similar thoughts after he finished screaming lyrics to Elvis Presley and Beastie Boys songs into the microphone.

“I’ll see you all next year!” he yelled.

Well, here they are again, just as they said they’d be, arriving in New Orleans on Monday afternoon for the start of festivities leading up to Super Bowl LIX.

It’s easy to suffer from exhaustion over Kansas City’s dominance in recent years. Let’s give someone else a shot at these trophies, right?

In the seven seasons Mahomes has been the starting quarterback of the franchise, Kansas City has never missed an AFC Championship Game, is attending its fifth Super Bowl and already has won three, including the last two.

Mahomes comes into this week with a chance at a fourth title, the one that used to be the standard held by Terry Bradshaw and Joe Montana before Tom Brady blew past them .  .  . and Mahomes is only 29.

At some point, though, the tedium of Kansas City’s annual presence at sports’ biggest party has to change from redundancy to respect.

That time is now.

Mahomes and Kansas City are back to achieve something not accomplished by Brady, Montana or Bradshaw: a Super Bowl three-peat. Not even Vince Lombardi’s Packers did that (although they did win three NFL championships in a row, with the first of their streak preceding the Super Bowl era by a year).

What speaks even more to Kansas City’s greatness is that it called this shot at history over a year ago. Even before the win over San Francisco in last year’s game, Kelce was talking behind the scenes about the exclusivity of three in a row.

Are they now thinking about four straight? Why not? And why stop there?

The Eagles certainly will have something to say about that. Of course, they had that chance two years ago, too. But until they — or the Bills, the Ravens or the others who have gotten blocked during this era of football — actually stop them, Kansas City will keep rolling.

Don’t like it?

Do something about it.

In the meantime, this dynasty needs to be cherished and appreciated, not reviled and ridiculed. It is history in the making. Witness it, don’t be weary of it.

No matter what happens on Sunday, Mahomes will have a way to go before he can start to approach Brady Territory. Even if he wins, he’ll be just a little over halfway to Brady’s standard of seven rings. He might never reach that level. Then again, he might just roll right past it.

Knowing this crew as well as we have come to over the years, there probably won’t be a lot of discussion about the possibility of three in a row from them in the coming days. Oh, there will be thousands of questions, that’s for sure. The answers? They’ll likely gravitate to the one-day-at-a-time theme. They already have.

“I think the only time I’ve heard [coach Andy Reid] say ‘three-peat’ is to the media whenever you all ask him about it,” Mahomes said last week. “He’s very locked in on how can we be great with our cadence today at practice, so that’s just the stuff that Coach Reid focuses on.”

Reid said Mahomes is similarly centered and not overwhelmed by the enormity of what is at stake.

“He’s been good with that,” Reid said. “I’d say that’s been a consistency. You can really see as the season builds up, he’s even more and more focused. Then you get to this time of the year, and he’s really locked in.”

But we know how they really feel because they already told us ... at last year’s Super Bowl.

“I’m going to do whatever I can to be back here in this game next year and try to go for that three-peat,” Mahomes said back then, still wearing the shoulder pads and jersey from his second consecutive title.

Then he did it. Bravo.

Quarterbacks with multiple Super Bowl wins:

7   Tom Brady             

4   Terry Bradshaw   

      Joe Montana    

3     Troy Aikman    

       Patrick Mahomes

2     John Elway

        Bob Griese

        Eli Manning

        Peyton Manning

        Jim Plunkett

        Ben Roethlisberger

        Bart Starr

        Roger Staubach

SUBSCRIBE

Unlimited Digital AccessOnly 25¢for 6 months

ACT NOWSALE ENDS SOON | CANCEL ANYTIME