With latest Super Bowl run, Chiefs’ would-be dynasty echoes ‘Patriot Way’

Observe stay protection of Tremendous Bowl LVIII between San Francisco 49ers and Kansas Metropolis Chiefs

LAS VEGAS — Amid the alcohol and elation, Tedy Bruschi sat there and let it soak in. It was too quickly to look forward, so he went again, spending the three-hour flight replaying the season in his thoughts.

It was February 2004, the day after the Tremendous Bowl. The aircraft was a celebration. The Patriots have been flying again from Houston after their second title, a 32-29 win over the Panthers in Tremendous Bowl XXXVIII. An embarrassing 31-0 Week 1 loss preceded an unbelievable run of dominance: only one defeat over the subsequent 4 months. New England had proven its beautiful run two winters prior wasn’t a fluke: this championship, after a 14-2 common season, cemented the Patriots as the highest staff of the brand new century.

Bruschi, a center linebacker and staff captain, hadn’t had an opportunity to consider the subsequent day, not to mention the subsequent season. Then Roman Phifer walked up and left him no selection.

“If we go back-to-back, that’s three of 4,” the man linebacker informed him. “Meaning they gotta name us a dynasty.”

Bruschi laughs, reliving the second twenty years later. For him, that’s when the Patriots’ pursuit grew to become about greater than mere championships. This was about changing into one of many biggest groups that ever performed. “Not even a full day had handed since we walked off the sector in Houston and we’re speaking concerning the subsequent one,” Bruschi mentioned. “Already, it’s, ‘What does it imply if we do it once more? The place does that put us?’

“Proper now, that’s precisely what the Chiefs are taking part in for.”

The personalities are completely different. The schemes. The model. However the similarities — above all, sustained success in a league designed to advertise parity — have gotten extra putting with every year, unimaginable to disregard because the Chiefs vie for his or her third title in 5 seasons Sunday towards the 49ers in Tremendous Bowl LVIII. New England reigned over the league for the higher a part of twenty years. Kansas Metropolis has since assumed the mantle, and with it, the icy really feel of inevitability as soon as the playoffs start.

The good groups — the enduring groups — merely refuse to go away. And with each title, the goal turns into extra pronounced.

“You hear individuals say we’re all people’s Tremendous Bowl,” defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo mentioned. “Everyone needs to knock off the highest canine. We perceive that.”

“That’s what makes it that a lot sweeter whenever you beat them,” Bruschi mentioned.

5 years in the past, Tom Brady strolled out of Kansas Metropolis’s Arrowhead Stadium alongside tight finish Rob Gronkowski after beating the Chiefs within the AFC Championship. It was a dying dynasty’s final nice run. The Patriots would win their sixth and final Tremendous Bowl 14 days later. Brady posted a video on Instagram displaying him and Gronkowski shrugging and smiling, Diddy’s lyrics bumping within the background. It was a message for anybody hoping the Patriots have been completed.

We ain’t … goin nowhere …

Two weeks in the past, throughout probably the most unlikely playoff run of his profession — a fourth Tremendous Bowl berth clinched after a sloppy common season and a pair of gutsy playoff wins on the highway because the betting underdog — Patrick Mahomes posted 4 images from the Chiefs’ AFC title recreation win in Baltimore. The track taking part in within the background was acquainted.

Amongst Travis Kelce’s favourite podcasts — other than his personal chart-topping present — is Julian Edelman’s “Video games with Names.” The Chiefs tight finish listens for what he calls “golden nuggets” from the previous Patriots receiver and three-time Tremendous Bowl champ, the tales and scenes that outlined New England’s second run of titles within the 2010s.

Kelce needs to know concerning the moments that constructed the Patriots’ championship DNA, those few hear about and even fewer have been there to witness. Some are reassuring, others invigorating, not merely home windows into greatness however reminders of the price of sustaining it. “I’m nonetheless studying stuff from these Patriots days,” Kelce mentioned. “It’s superior to listen to it from their viewpoint.”

He’s not prepared for the comparisons — “(that) was the very best soccer that we’ve ever actually seen within the NFL” — however he is aware of what it’s like when each staff needs to dethrone you, when each season ends with both a championship or a flurry of questions on why you got here up quick.

“The years we haven’t gained it since we first gained it have felt like the largest losses of my life,” Kelce says.

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It got here up not too long ago in a dialog between Kelce and his quarterback. The extra the Chiefs win, Mahomes mentioned, the extra he’s grown to understand what the Patriots did earlier than them. “To return again, be on this many Tremendous Bowls, and to proceed to get each staff’s greatest shot and proceed to get higher and higher and win extra, it’s robust,” Mahomes mentioned. “It’s onerous.”

Which is why Kelce, 11 years into his profession, Corridor of Fame gold jacket assured, has determined a win Sunday would imply greater than the earlier two. It’s the identical motive Roman Phifer identified to Bruschi on the Patriots’ aircraft 20 years in the past. This championship would transfer the Chiefs into a distinct dialog.

He is aware of it’s been two full many years since a Tremendous Bowl champ efficiently defended its title. He additionally is aware of who that staff was.

“I would like this yet another than I’ve ever wished a Tremendous Bowl in my life,” Kelce admitted this week. “As a result of that tier of groups which have achieved it twice (in a row) have gone down in historical past as among the greats.”

“Generally, I’ve to pinch myself,” Joe Thuney mentioned.

The offensive lineman spent the primary 5 years of his profession with Brady in New England, profitable two Tremendous Bowl rings. He signed with the Chiefs in free company after the 2020 season and added one other ring final winter.

Simply because the Patriots’ run ended, the Chiefs’ started. Thuney says gamers in New England may really feel it, particularly after an epic convention championship recreation in 2019. Kansas Metropolis was coming, and as soon as they arrived, the Chiefs weren’t more likely to stumble again to mediocrity. Not with Mahomes at quarterback and Andy Reid at head coach.

“It begins on the high, with nice management like Coach Reid and gamers like Patrick who’re really concerning the staff,” Thuney mentioned. “There’s no magic drills or practices. It’s the boring particulars we take note of.”

Below Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes, the Chiefs’ championship run started simply because the Patriots’ dominance waned. (Kevin Sabitus / Getty Photos)

Each groups got here to outline the eras during which they dominated. At their greatest, the Patriots have been a mirrored image of inscrutable head coach Invoice Belichick — inflexible, unrelenting and stunningly constant. Their success nearly grew to become boring. For 20 years, they have been the AFC’s immovable object. So many promising seasons in Indianapolis, Baltimore and Pittsburgh died in Foxboro.

Actually, there have been two separate Patriots dynasties linked by Belichick’s brilliance and Brady’s dependability, Bruschi mentioned, every netting three titles inside a five-year window. The run within the early 2000s was anchored by an all-time protection, a unit that allowed Brady time to develop into one of many recreation’s greats for the second spate of championships.

“Tom was chargeable for one landing together with his arm within the 2001 playoffs,” Bruschi notes. “We have been type of bringing him alongside. He needed to care for the soccer and handle the sport. The second I observed one thing particular in him was the second half of the Panthers Tremendous Bowl (two years later). From that time, we have been off and operating.

“Mahomes is type of going backward. It’s the reverse of what we did. He gained the MVP his first 12 months because the starter. He’s been carrying that staff on his again like Tom did later in his profession in New England.”

Bruschi’s proper. The Chiefs have been sparked by their franchise QB’s fast ascent. Within the age of wildly gifted, cell passers, nobody does it higher than Mahomes. Paired with Reid, among the many most modern play-callers in league historical past, they’ve shaped a tandem the remainder of the NFL has come to envy.

*Brady performed in only one recreation throughout his rookie season in 2000 and missed the 2008 season as a consequence of harm.

Each franchises fought the forces that derail potential dynasties: accidents, ego, the load of elevated expectations, the pillaging of gifted assistants, the psychological toll of advancing deep within the playoffs 12 months after 12 months, plus a wage cap constructed to restrict nice groups from persevering with to pay all their nice gamers.

Each needed to make chilly, calculated choices alongside the way in which. Belichick famously reduce beginning security Lawyer Milloy after coaching camp in 2003, a shock transfer that foreshadowed a flurry of high-profile exits throughout his tenure — defensive lineman Richard Seymour, linebacker Willie McGinest and receiver Wes Welker amongst them. Two years in the past, the Chiefs traded away the very best receiver in soccer, Tyreek Hill, and used the capital they acquired in return to construct up what’s turn into a punishing protection.

“There’s an inclination to have a letdown after you’ve gained a championship, after you’ve chased one thing for a very long time,” Chiefs proprietor Clark Hunt mentioned after Kansas Metropolis’s first Tremendous Bowl win in 2020. “That will likely be our problem.”

They’ve met it, reaching the sport 3 times within the 4 years since and including one other Lombardi Trophy to their assortment final winter. And in a single main distinction from the Patriots, the Chiefs have achieved so unstained by on-field scandals. Spygate price New England a first-round decide and a $250,000 high-quality (Belichick was additionally personally fined a league-maximum $500,000). Lower than a decade later, Deflategate price Brady a four-game suspension to start out the 2016 season.

The Patriots grew into the NFL’s main villains, loathed by followers throughout the league. Belichick’s biting information conferences and ominous sideline presence — signature gray hoodie pulled tight, by no means a smile in sight — didn’t assist. The Chiefs have been a departure, buoyed by Mahomes’ childlike power, Kelce’s frat bro likability and Reid’s amiable management.

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Because the highlight expanded, headlines have come off the sector, too. Brady and Gisele Bundchen dated and married through the Patriots’ dynasty; New England stored profitable.

This season, the Chiefs have skilled a completely completely different crush of consideration. Requested this week concerning the added scrutiny that comes with relationship probably the most well-known lady on the earth, Kelce smiled.

“I really feel prefer it’s solely given me extra power,” he mentioned.

Bruschi mentioned his Patriots groups by no means wore down late within the season as a result of that’s all they knew. The payoff got here within the little moments beneath the brilliant lights.

He noticed the identical factor in final month’s AFC Championship Recreation.

The Ravens have been the convention’s high seed, 4.5-point favorites and taking part in at dwelling, anxious to unseat the champs. Then they melted down.

“One staff regarded prefer it had been there earlier than,” Bruschi mentioned. “That was the Chiefs.”

By recreation’s finish, Baltimore dedicated eight penalties to Kansas Metropolis’s three. In a single telling second, Ravens linebacker Kyle Van Noy — a former Patriot no much less — headbutted Kelce, who’d been yapping all recreation. A flag flew. Kelce laughed.

“That’s once I was like, ‘That is achieved,’” Bruschi mentioned. “These (Ravens) guys, these veterans, have been appearing out of their minds. Generally groups simply lose it in huge video games.”

Standing on the sideline that day, Blaine Gabbert, Mahomes’ backup, noticed the Chiefs take a web page out of Brady’s previous playbook. Gabbert sat behind Brady in Tampa Bay late in Brady’s profession and remembers his message to the Bucs earlier than playoff video games: “In case you take it to them, the inexperienced groups will break.”

“You noticed that very clearly final week in Baltimore, not solely in the way in which they performed however the way in which the followers reacted,” Gabbert mentioned. “It was a hostile setting and we simply smiled as we walked off. We took it to them in their very own home. They requested for one thing, they acquired it, and that’s the way in which it goes.”

Bruschi, like so many others, had his doubts concerning the Chiefs as their lackluster common season got here to a detailed. Then their playoff run reminded him of one thing.

“Right here’s the key: When profitable championships is in your blood, you simply don’t panic, it doesn’t matter what’s occurring,” he mentioned. “In case your character’s being questioned, in case your teammates are struggling, if any person’s not getting it proper, if Travis Kelce’s dropping the soccer — nothing makes you panic.

“You simply let the opposite groups do this.”

In February 2005, a 12 months after they gained that Tremendous Bowl in Houston, the Patriots defended their title, beating the Eagles 24-21. They continue to be the final group to go back-to-back. After the celebration, a handful of gamers, together with Brady and Bruschi, flew to Hawaii for the Professional Bowl.

Earlier than the sport, the AFC spaced out participant introductions by staff. Those that didn’t make the playoffs went first, then got here these bounced within the wild-card spherical. Then the divisional spherical. Then the convention championship. Lastly, it was the Patriots’ flip. The gamers regarded round. The locker room was nearly empty. Six of them remained. Brady huddled the group collectively.

“You already know what guys?” he informed them. “Nobody’s ever gained three in a row.”

“I nonetheless had confetti on the underside of my cleats from the Tremendous Bowl, however that’s how that staff thought,” Bruschi mentioned. “And I assure you if the Chiefs get this one on Sunday, they’ll begin occupied with the very same factor.”

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(Illustration: Sean Reilly / The Athletic; images: Katelyn Mulcahy, Tom Pennington, Cooper Neill, Ronald Martinez, Jamie Squire / Getty Photos)