Super Bowl 2023: Chiefs Super Bowl history includes championships 50 years apart
The Kansas City Chiefs pulled off one of the biggest upsets in Super Bowl history. Nobody remembers it as such, because of what happened the year before.
In Super Bowl IV, the Chiefs were 12-point underdogs against the Minnesota Vikings. It was the last game before the American Football League merged with the NFL. The Chiefs won that game 23-7. It would have been remembered as a much bigger moment in NFL history if not for Super Bowl III, when Joe Namath led the AFL's New York Jets to a groundbreaking win over the Baltimore Colts, who were 18-point favorites, the year before. That Jets win is the one everyone still talks about.
Perhaps that win was overshadowed in the context of NFL history, but for the Chiefs it was a huge win they had to celebrate for a long time. That's because until Patrick Mahomes came around, Kansas City didn't get another taste of the Super Bowl.
Chiefs had a good early Super Bowl history
The Chiefs played in the first Super Bowl, though they seemed to be an afterthought. Their opponent, the Green Bay Packers led by Vince Lombardi and a host of Hall of Famers, were in the middle of a great dynasty. The Packers were the headliner of Super Bowl I and a fitting champion. However, the Chiefs kept the game close for a half and proved that the AFL had some great players too. The Chiefs lost 35-10, but it wasn't as bad of a Super Bowl debut as the score might indicate. The Packers were just better.
The Chiefs' second Super Bowl trip went much better. Facing the heavily favored Vikings in the fourth Super Bowl, Hank Stram's Chiefs dominated the game. They led 16-0 at halftime. The defense was great, forcing five turnovers. Super Bowl MVP Len Dawson led the offense, and a 46-yard catch and run by Otis Taylor for a touchdown in the third quarter made it clear that the Chiefs were going to win a championship.
Nine members of the 1969 Chiefs made the Pro Football Hall of Fame. But Super Bowl IV was the last playoff win for that great group. It would be a long time before the Chiefs made it back to a Super Bowl.
Patrick Mahomes era leads to another title
Between 1971 and 1986, the Chiefs didn't make the playoffs, much less a Super Bowl. They made an AFC championship game with Joe Montana at the end of the 1993 season, the only AFC title game appearance they'd have for decades.
Then Mahomes showed up, and the Chiefs started hosting every AFC championship game.
Mahomes was the Chiefs' first-round pick in 2017. He didn't start as a rookie, but in 2018 he became the starter. That season he won NFL MVP, and the Chiefs hosted the first of five straight AFC championship games. They'd lose that one but the next year they advanced to Super Bowl LIV. The Chiefs trailed the San Francisco 49ers 20-10 going into the fourth quarter of that game, but a huge 44-yard pass from Mahomes to Tyreek Hill on third-and-15 sparked a comeback. The Chiefs won 31-20, their first Super Bowl championship in 50 years.
Kansas City made it back the next season, but lost 31-9 to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. At least it wasn't 50 years until it made another Super Bowl.
