After Sunday’s AFC Championship loss at home to the Cincinnati Bengals, I think it’s time we come to realize that these Kansas City Chiefs are a great team, but they are not a dynasty. Not currently, anyway. Dynasties usually include multiple Super Bowl victories, not just getting there and taking second place or missing the big game altogether.
Patrick Mahomes is off to a scorching hot start to his career, winning the league’s MVP award in year two (first as a starter), playing in back-to-back Super Bowls and appearing in four consecutive AFC championship games. This Chiefs organization hadn’t seen this type of success since the late 1960s when they also went to two Super Bowls in four years, winning one.
Even with all the recent success, it feels like KC has left some chips on the table. We’re so used to everything moving so quickly in the digital media age that we now crown anything good as a “GOAT” before the story plays out. This isn’t exclusive to football. Just look at the NBA and last year’s champion Milwaukee Bucks. You’ve got folks on TV, radio, and print talking about how they’re the next NBA dynasty and the new Big Three of the league. The Dallas Mavericks also won a title in 2011 and haven’t been heard from since on the championship scene. Everyone is so eager to be first in predicting the future when nobody really knows how it will play out. I get making predictions and all that, but it’s just gotten out of hand, and the Chiefs are an excellent example of this.
No matter how successful a team has been overall, they aren’t a dynasty if they don’t cap it off by winning more than one title. So they would’ve at least needed to win this time to be considered a dynasty, when you add in what else they’ve accomplished over this four-year run. Playing in three consecutive Super Bowls and four AFC championship games at home sounds far closer to a dynasty with more than just one Lombardi Trophy to show for it.
The discussion is obviously back in play if the Chiefs come back next season and win it all. But for now, let’s hold off on that kind of talk. They fumbled the bag away this year and had the Bengals down and seemingly out at halftime (21-10) of the AFC championship. The Chiefs came out in the second half and had zero answers for the Bengals. Their offense sputtered, and we already knew what to expect from the defense. Remember, the Buffalo Bills went to four Super Bowls in a row during the 90s. Had they been able to win once, I still don’t think that team would have been labeled a dynasty by the sports world. So give it a little time, KC. A dynasty isn’t entirely out of the question. You just don’t have one at the moment.
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