How to define a dynasty is a question open to interpretation, and your answer will probably have a lot of bearing on whether you agree with this list or think it’s the worst thing you’ve ever seen. So let’s go over the ground rules now that we have to rank the Chiefs among the NFL’s all-time best after their 25-22 overtime vistory against the 49ers in Super Bowl LVIII.
For these purposes, winning as many championships in as short a period as possible is the way to build a dynasty. Not every team on this list won back-to-back championships, but the one that didn’t got dinged for it. Ditto for teams that went longer periods between titles. Qualifying requires a minimum of three titles.
As for the Patriots, we split them into two dynasties — the first between 2001-04 and the second between 2014-18. The reason for this was twofold. First, the list is more interesting that way. It makes for a legitimate debate over No. 1. Second, they were two completely different teams, just with the same coach and quarterback.
This list is also just for NFL teams in the Super Bowl era. Apologies to Vince Lombardi’s Packers, who won the 1965 NFL title before winning the first two Super Bowls. And apologies to the Cleveland Browns of the 1940s who won five straight championships between the AAFC and the NFL.
Let’s get to it.
6. Brady-Belichick Part II
This is where we get into the weeds on what qualifies a dynasty. The Patriots won three titles between 2014 and 2018, doing so every other season for five years. They also lost Super Bowl LII to the Eagles, and made the AFC title game in the lone year during that span in which they did not play in the Super Bowl. But they never won back-to-back titles.
Their wins over the Seahawks and Falcons in Super Bowls XLIX and LI, respectively, are two of the greatest championship wins in the history of the sport. And this run is ultimately the reason Tom Brady and Bill Belichick are considered the greatest coach and quarterback of all time. But New England’s first run of greatness was better than its second.
5. Joe Montana’s 49ers
San Francisco is toward the bottom of this list, mostly because it’s debatable whether these Niners should qualify for the dynasty title at all. Montana won four Super Bowls with the 49ers, but they came over a nine-year period, with three seasons separating his second title in 1984 from his third in 1988.
The highs, of course, were incredible. The ’84 Niners went 15-1 and rolled through the playoffs. Montana led memorable comeback drives in Super Bowls XVI and XXIII, establishing himself as the best quarterback of all-time until Brady came along. Bill Walsh’s offense revolutionized the sport. And Steve Young would add another trophy to San Francisco’s shelf in 1994, shortly after Montana left.
But three straight years without a Super Bowl appearance dents the case here.
4. The Mahomes Chiefs
This feels like a good place to put the Chiefs after Sunday night. Back-to-back titles and a third in five seasons checks boxes that the two dynasties below them didn’t. But they still need to catch up to a few teams before being considered the best ever.
Thing is, they just might.
Patrick Mahomes is only 28. Andy Reid is 65. Steve Spagnuolo is 64. Travis Kelce, at 34, might have to think about the next chapter soon, but doesn’t appear to be slowing down on the field at all. The foundational pieces are going to be here in 2024 and perhaps beyond.
More than that, the Chiefs have adjusted on the fly already by losing Tyreek Hill and staying atop the league. (If you want to argue that the post-1994 dynasties deserve more weight on this list because of the salary cap, that’s a fair critique, by the way). No one would be surprised if Kansas City climbs a few more spots in the future.
3. The Steel Curtain
Two back-to-back title runs separated by two seasons gets Jack Lambert, Joe Greene and Co. to third on our list. The Steelers owned the 1970s with a roster that featured an astonishing nine Hall of Famers — Greene, Lambert, Mel Blount, Jack Ham, Franco Harris, Lynn Swann, Terry Bradshaw, John Stallworth and Mike Webster.
They were a perfect 4-0 in Super Bowls and rarely were challenged in the games themselves — the two times they won by one score, it was because the other team scored toward the end before Pittsburgh ran the clock down. This was the league’s first true dynasty, and aside from Lombardi’s Packers, it was the league’s first truly iconic team.
2. Brady-Belichick Part I
If we were counting the Patriots as one dynasty with six titles, they would easily rank atop this list. But we’re not, because aside from Brady and Belichick, nearly the entire makeup of the team was different in 2014 than it was in 2004.
This version of New England ranks above the second because of both the way it emerged in 2001 and its dominance in winning back-to-back titles in 2003 and 2004.
Remember, before Brady came onto the scene, the Patriots were a historically lousy franchise. It took a freak injury and a quarterback drafted in the sixth round to turn them into the Evil Empire. And in so doing, they put together one of the great playoff runs of all-time, winning the Tuck Rule Game, beating the Steelers without Brady in an AFC title game that Troy Brown almost single handedly won before No. 12 authored one of the great title-winning drives against the Greatest Show on Turf in New Orleans.
Then, after the Patriots had a mediocre 2002, Brady transformed into a monster and so did New England. They went 14-2 in consecutive seasons, twice fended off Peyton Manning in the playoffs and twice won airtight Super Bowls thanks to their advantages under center and on the sidelines.
1. America’s Team
The Cowboys of the early-1990s were made for the headlines with Jerry Jones, head coaching drama and characters like Michael Irvin and Emmitt Smith. They were also unimpeachably excellent, winning three championships in four years while cementing themselves as the sport’s greatest dynasty.
The franchise has never come close to replicating the same success since then, but there is a reason the glory days are looked upon so fondly. From 1992-95, the lowest yardage total Smith rushed for in a single season was 1,484. Irvin’s worst year by receiving yardage still had him at 1,241. Their defense was top-five in the league by yardage each year Dallas won a title. Twice in Super Bowls, they blew out a Bills team that probably could have been on this list if it hadn’t run into a wall.
Time, and the Patriots, have eroded some of the glimmer. But this is a dynasty deserving of the top spot.
Today’s back page
CBS’s big miss
There was a lot of scrutiny on Jim Nantz and Tony Romo headed into this Super Bowl. All things considered, they did a fine job for most of the night. Romo has a tendency to overtalk, but that is priced in by now and his excitement during the game’s key moments was contagious.
But in overtime, the broadcast made a crucial error by not explaining that Kansas City’s last drive would continue in double-OT if the clock hit zeroes at the end of the first overtime period with the Niners still leading. That may have been mentioned with a graphic explaining the rules when the period started, but it had to be brought up again — preferably more than once — as the final drive unfolded.
This was the first game under the new playoff OT rules since they were instituted last season, and they appeared to confuse Romo at one point. So even fans who tune in every Sunday may have been watching the last drive shouting at their television for Andy Reid to call a timeout. Let alone viewers who tune in once a year for the Super Bowl.
Romo, to his credit, did realize this before the last play and jumped in to clarify the situation. But the entire broadcast bears responsibility for not doing so beforehand. It was a black mark on an otherwise decent night.
A pressure-cooker of an NFL offseason
Jets’ offseason outlook
The biggest headline of Super Bowl week for Gang Green was owner Woody Johnson letting loose on the team’s messy 2023 campaign, pointing blame at Zach Wilson and giving a not-a-playoff-mandate-but-sounds-like-a-playoff-mandate ultimatum.
That is as good a barometer as any for the frustration surrounding the organization after Aaron Rodgers’ Achilles tear turned 2023 into a redux of 2022, where bad quarterback play outweighed a good defense and talent at skill positions.
First on the to-do list is, obviously, a better backup quarterback. There was no bigger organizational failure than sticking with Wilson behind Rodgers, as Johnson all but said flat-out this week. Even if it means spending their first-round pick on a quarterback and setting off the same succession plan drama as the Packers did by taking Jordan Love, the Jets need to do something here.
From there, a couple offensive tackles are also on the to-do list after the line struggled from training camp onwards. Assuming the Jets do not use the 10th pick on a quarterback — which to be clear, feels like a very safe assumption right now — that seems like a good place to start in the draft conversation.
Giants’ offseason outlook
Did you say QB controversy? How about an entire offense’s worth of questions around skill positions?
Daniel Jones is entering the offseason on the sort of probably-safe ground that no QB really wants to be on. After leading the Giants to the playoffs in 2022, Jones struggled last year before getting hurt in early November. The Giants have the sixth pick in the draft, and if they become enamored with a quarterback other than Caleb Williams or Drake Maye, Jones’ contract does have an out after next season. It’s not yet a big question, but could become one fast.
Otherwise, as you may have heard, the team still needs to come to a resolution on Saquon Barkley after failing to do so last summer. The deadline for a second franchise tag is March 5, but if Barkley is going to be a Giant For Life, it probably means coming to a multiyear deal of some kind. If that does not happen, the running back has already begun to accept that his wish to spend a career in New York may not come true.
Then there is the receiver position, which has been a black hole for a long time for the Giants and continued to be this season, when no player notched over 800 yards. The last 1,000-yard receiver for the franchise was Odell Beckham Jr. in 2018. So that would be pretty high on Joe Schoen’s to-do list.
What we’re reading 👀
🏈 “Fair or unfair, the legacy of [Kyle] Shanahan was as much up for grabs as any player or coach,” writes Mark Cannizzaro of the pressure facing the 49ers coach entering the Super Bowl, but after an excruciating close loss in OT, “Shanahan’s big-game-coaching reputation takes yet another heartbreak hit.”
🏈 Mecole Hardman started this season as a Jet. He ended as a Super Bowl champ with the NFL’s newest dynasty. Brian Costello tells the tale of Hardman’s roller-coaster season that began with him all but out of the Jets’ game plan and ended with him scoring the Super Bowl-winning touchdown with the Chiefs.
🏈 The anti-analytics crowd won’t be happy with this one. Niners coach Kyle Shanahan said, “We went through all the analytics,” before deciding to take the ball first in OT, “because if both teams matched and scored, we wanted to be the ones to have a chance to go win it.” The decision puzzled many football fans at the time, and for good reason as things turned out.
⚾ The Mets welcome their new-look pitching staff to Port St. Lucie on Monday, and no two players may have a bigger impact on how this season goes in Queens than two guys who weren’t even on the roster last year.
🏀 The Knicks may not have won in Bojan Bogdanovic’s debut with the team over the weekend but the franchise did win over its newest addition. “The building was on fire the whole game,” Bogdanovich told The Post. “So I really appreciate the support and love that they showed me today.”
🏒 Your eyes aren’t deceving you: The Islanders are awful at killing penalties. How bad? Well, they’ve given up a short-handed goal in six stright games and rank dead last in the NHL at skating four-on five. No wonder Patrick Roy said, “We know that won’t do it for us to be a playoff team.”
This story originally appeared on NYPost