NFL's next dynasty? Patrick Mahomes and Kansas City knocking on door to exclusive club

As they took turns hoisting the Vince Lombardi Trophy on a confetti-strewn field at Atlanta's Mercedes-Benz Stadium, their place secure in Super Bowl history, Tom Brady and Bill Belichick reveled in a feat that had never before been accomplished. 

Nor did it seem even remotely possible that it would ever be done again — at least not in the foreseeable future. 

The Patriots had just won their sixth title on Feb. 3, 2019, setting a record for the most Super Bowl championships by a single franchise. Their dynasty was the most prolific and long-lasting of any team, built over a span of 18 seasons by the most accomplished quarterback and coach in NFL history. 

It simply can’t happen again, not in a parity-driven league built to make it harder for the champions to keep winning. There’s no way the Patriots can be challenged again, at least not for a generation. 

Right? 

Well . . .  Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid might have something to say about it.

Incredible as it may seem, especially given the fact that it has been less than five years since the Patriots last won the Super Bowl, it is not beyond the realm of possibility that Kansas City will become the NFL’s next dynasty. 

Mahomes and Reid can become the first quarterback-coach tandem to win back-to-back Super Bowls since Brady and Belichick accomplished that feat in the 2003 and 2004 seasons.Kansas City is in position to win its third Super Bowl title in five years. At the start of the Patriots’ championship run, they won three Lombardi Trophies in four years. 

We can tap the brakes — for now, anyway — on the notion that Kansas City can get to six Super Bowl titles to match the Patriots. In fact, Mahomes is the first to warn that they simply can’t get ahead of themselves. 

“I think the thing this year is how can we keep building?” he told reporters toward the beginning of training camp, as he, Travis Kelce — still the best tight end in the game — and a strong mix of veteran players and rising stars started to get ready to defend their title. “Obviously, we won the Super Bowl last year, and it was amazing. But we still have a lot of young guys and we want to continue to get better and better.”

Mahomes also is quick to point out that Kansas City plays in a loaded conference with legitimate Super Bowl contenders in Cincinnati, Buffalo, Miami, the Los Angeles Chargers, Baltimore, Jacksonville and possibly even the Jets with Aaron Rodgers. 

“You look around the AFC, everyone has gotten better,” he said. “So you want to continue to build and not be satisfied with what we did last year and see if we can take that next step.”

Rest assured that Reid, who has blossomed into a lock as a Hall of Fame coach with two championships and a combined four Super Bowl appearances, will make sure  Kansas City doesn’t experience a sense of complacency. Even Mahomes knows that despite all he has accomplished by age 27, there is more room to grow. 

“He never lets you be satisfied with where you’re at,” Mahomes said. “He has a way of challenging me, it seems like every day.”

It’s a similar dynamic that powered the Patriots’ dynasty, with Belichick and Brady combining forces to create the longest-lasting reign of supremacy in NFL history, and perhaps even the history of all team sports. The coach and the quarterback were the indispensable pieces, just as Reid and Mahomes are in Kansas City. 

And history says that with those two ingredients — a Hall of Fame-caliber coach and quarterback — dynasties certainly are possible. Consider:

• The great Packers teams of the 1960s were led by Lombardi and Bart Starr. 

• The Steelers’ dynasty of the 1970s had Chuck Noll and Terry Bradshaw, along with one of the great defenses of all time. 

• The 49ers won three Super Bowl titles in the 1980s with Bill Walsh and Joe Montana, and another with Montana and Walsh successor George Seifert. 

• The Cowboys had Jimmy Johnson and Troy Aikman — along with Emmitt Smith and Michael Irvin — as the central figures in a run of three titles in four years, the last with coach Barry Switzer after Johnson split with team owner Jerry Jones. 

• The Browns were virtually unbeatable in their four championship seasons in the All-America Football Conference, and coach Paul Brown and quarterback Otto Graham proved they were the best in all of football by winning three titles after the Browns merged with the NFL in 1950. 

The only exception to the coach-quarterback axiom: Hall of Fame coach Joe Gibbs, who led Washington to three titles from 1982-91 with three different quarterbacks, none of whom was Hall of Fame-worthy. 

Despite not having an elite quarterback, Gibbs still laments the potential titles that got away. Not long ago, he looked at a picture of himself, Walsh and Bill Parcells and shook his head. 

“I look at those two guys, and man, if they didn’t keep me from winning more,” Gibbs told Newsday. “I look at the NFC East in those days. Did we have to have all those great coaches and great owners? It was just so competitive, and you throw the 49ers and Bears in there, and it was, my gosh, there are so many great teams and great players.”

Hard-fought competition in the NFL is as old as the league itself, and teams that consistently stand above the rest are more the exception than the rule. Translation: It’s hard enough to win a championship in this league; it’s much, much harder to do it over and over again. 

'SO MUCH HAS TO GO RIGHT'

Phil Villapiano knows firsthand how that goes. An All-Pro linebacker with the great Raiders teams of the 1970s under Hall of Fame coach John Madden, Villapiano went to the playoffs five straight years from 1972-76 but won only one Super Bowl. As fate would have it, the Raiders played in the same conference as two of the decade’s other legendary teams: the Dolphins and Steelers. 

“Getting to the Super Bowl is not easy, and you look back and you say, ‘Oh, my God, everything just went perfect that year,’ ” Villapiano told Newsday of the 1976 championship run. “That’s why it’s so hard to repeat. Everything just has to be working perfectly. And you have to be lucky. 

“Our Super Bowl year, we were 13-1, but we almost got beat about five times,” he said. “Everything went just great. You’re having fun, your fans are all excited, then you win a Super Bowl. But to do it over again, so much has to go right."

Injuries are a factor every year in the NFL, and if key players from a championship team are lost for a period of time — or the entire season — it can make all the difference. Off-field problems are another source of potential trouble. Look no further than Plaxico Burress’ self-shooting late in the 2008 season, when the Giants were in position to repeat as champions. The Giants were 10-1 when Burress accidentally shot himself in the leg at a New York nightclub. They beat Washington two days later but lost three of their final four games and were beaten in a home playoff game by the Eagles. 

Also working against championship teams: unrestricted free agency, combined with salary cap constraints that limit how many essential players can be kept under contract. It has never been easier for weaker teams to get better in a hurry by signing quality free agents, which makes it even more imperative for winning teams to draft well and thus have quality players working on their rookie deals. 

The end result is enhanced parity, which has been the lifeblood of the NFL's “any given Sunday” mantra of hope for all teams. And the stat that perhaps best exemplifies how even bad teams have hope: In 18 of the past 20 seasons, at least one team has gone from worst to first, winning its respective division after finishing last the year before. The 2022 Jaguars are the latest team to achieve the feat. 

“This league is hard,” Giants coach Brian Daboll said as his team was making an unexpected playoff push last season. “It’s something we’ve preached since Day One. It’s not always going to be perfect. There will be a lot of people down on you, and you might be down on yourself, wish you could do better. But you keep on getting back up, you keep on swinging, keep on competing, regardless of the score or the situation of the game.”

PATS: GOLD STANDARD 

Given all the challenges facing teams, especially winning teams, the Patriots’ remarkable consistency is what set them apart from every other championship team. And we are still close to a decade away from finding out whether Kansas City can come close to New England's remarkable run. 

The Patriots went to the Super Bowl a combined nine times, with Brady (41) becoming the oldest quarterback to win a Super Bowl (a record he eclipsed with the Buccaneers at age 43), and Belichick (66) the oldest coach to win a Lombardi Trophy. Belichick joined George Halas and Curly Lambeau as the only NFL head coaches with six championships since the league started postseason play in 1933. 

“I’m just so blessed to play with the best teammates through the years from our ’01 team and all the way through now,” Brady said after his final title run in New England. “I love all those guys. That’s what makes this special, man. It’s a brotherhood. All those relationships are so important in my life, and I can’t cherish it enough.”

An ebullient Belichick expressed profound gratitude to his players. 

“In the biggest moments when we had to play our best football and compete the hardest,” he said, “they did it.”

Now it’s time for Reid and Mahomes to see if they can come become the next dynasty. Even if Reid, 65, is more the type to think about the next practice, not the next championship. But he does revel in the moment, and age is not a factor. 

“I look in the mirror and I’m old,” he said after last year’s 38-35 Super Bowl win over the Eagles. “My heart, though, is young. I still enjoy doing what I’m doing.”

As does Mahomes, who is in his NFL prime and continues to have his sights set on another title run.

"I’m always confident we have a chance to get to the Super Bowl,” said Mahomes, who has played in five straight AFC title games, all at home. “I think we have a lot of motivated guys that want to continue to build this thing. We want to have a special group that can carry out a legacy. I think we have the right guys. Now let’s just go out there and do it.”

Who are we to say they can’t?

By Bob Glauber

Special to NewsdayBobGlauber

Bob Glauber retired in 2022 after covering the NFL for nearly 40 years. He was selected in 2021 for the Bill Nunn Career Achievement Award by the Pro Football Writers of America, and is a three-time winner of the New York State Sportswriter of the Year by the National Sports Media Association. President of the PFWA for the 2018-20 seasons, he is the author of “The Forgotten First” and “Guts and Genius.”