Fifteen regular-season wins and two playoff victories -- including a nailbiter in the AFC Championship Game -- later, the Chiefs are once again conference champions and heading back to the Super Bowl.
To some, it might be old hat. Kansas City has represented the AFC in each of the last two Super Bowls and will do so again in New Orleans on Feb. 9. But this time, history is on the line.
As winners of the last two Super Bowls, the Chiefs have a chance to become the first team to three-peat in NFL history. The gravity of the opportunity is not lost on any of them. After taking down the Buffalo Bills, 32-29, in the AFC Championship Game on Sunday, many of their responses ended with the same statement of a shared goal: Make history.
"It's a new feeling right now, but I'm just excited," tight end Travis Kelce said Sunday. "I'm happy for the guys that are doing this for the first time, trying to make it everything for them. But I know there's bigger fish to fry and that's the Philadelphia Eagles down there in New Orleans."
The last opponent standing between the Chiefs and history is the same one they toppled to start this run. Philadelphia is back in the Super Bowl after rolling the Washington Commanders in the NFC Championship Game, and it'll understandably be out for revenge after losing Super Bowl LVII to the Chiefs in heartbreaking fashion in Glendale, Arizona two seasons ago.
"We know they're gonna have a sour taste in their mouth from the last time we played them in the Super Bowl," Kelce said. "That being said, we gotta go to work. We gotta go to work and make sure we're ready to handle it."
Some of the same main characters are back. On Kansas City's side, it's Kelce, Patrick Mahomes, Chris Jones and Andy Reid. For the Eagles, it's Jalen Hurts, A.J. Brown, Lane Johnson and Nick Sirianni, among others. Between the Eagles and Chiefs, 27 combined starters (15 for the Chiefs, 12 for the Eagles) return from the squads that faced off in Super Bowl LVII.
Rosters change over time, but often the hallmark of dynastic franchises is the continued presence of key contributors. In the era of free agency and the NFL draft, retaining such contributors is difficult by design. Aspiring teams often pillage the best in an effort to increase their chances. But Kansas City and Philadelphia have each held onto their most important assets and will bring plenty of Super Bowl experience to the field in New Orleans.
"It means the world to me because I see the work they put in each day," Mahomes said of Jones and Kelce. "Everybody sees, especially those two, their personalities and how fun they are. And how much people like to be around them. The work they put in every single day even when they're at the top of their game is what makes them so special. I just try to maximize the opportunities I have with those guys. I'm so appreciative of being in this situation with this team.
"I'm excited to get out there and have another challenge in the Super Bowl, with those guys as leaders beside me."
Their paths to this point have been vastly different. After losing Super Bowl LVII, Philadelphia earned some revenge in the following season, defeating the Chiefs at Arrowhead during the regular season. But the Eagles encountered a dramatic late-season collapse and bowed out of the playoffs in the first round in a meltdown so drastic it nearly cost Sirianni his job.
Philadelphia stayed the course, though, rebounding emphatically in 2024 and embarking on a run that saw it win three home playoff games en route to a return to the game's biggest stage.
Kansas City, meanwhile, remains the untouchable king of the NFL. The Chiefs have staved off even the toughest challenges to their throne, defeating the San Francisco 49ers in overtime to win Super Bowl LVIII in Las Vegas and emerging on the victorious side of 17 straight one-possession games dating back to Week 17 of the 2023 season. In 2024, they've lost just two games, and only one of those two defeats included their starters.
With Sunday's win sending them back to the Super Bowl, the Chiefs have now reached the grand stage five times over the last six seasons. Only two teams have defeated them when it mattered most during this run: Tampa Bay (in Super Bowl LV) and Cincinnati (in the 2021 season's AFC Championship Game).
Since their loss to Joe Burrow's Bengals, the Chiefs have ended each subsequent season as the last team standing. Their win Sunday already made history, cementing them as the first team with a chance to three-peat to reach the Super Bowl. If they win on Feb. 9, they'll top that note with an even greater one.
"You think of all the ups and downs and arounds that you went through during the season," Reid said when asked why it's taken so long for a team to earn a chance to win a third straight title. "The injuries, all those things that have to just happen the right way. The margin to win or to lose in this league is so small. The parity is unbelievable. That's the way the commissioner and the owners wanted that, so that every city had a chance. Some of these games are gut-wrenching, and I've got a lot of gut to wrench, so it's one of those things. You really have to hit it right."
The Chiefs have certainly hit it right. Some might say it began with the selection of Mahomes in the 2017 draft, but Kansas City's true genesis occurred when the Chiefs hired Reid as coach back in 2013, shortly after he parted with the Eagles. The Chiefs elevated to Super Bowl contending status when Mahomes arrived, marrying coach with generational quarterback and kicking off an incredible run of success that continues to this day.
Super Bowl LIX will be Mahomes' fifth appearance in the big game in his career, a total reached before his 30th birthday, speeding past Tom Brady's previous mark of three appearances before the legend turned 30. Mahomes still has a ways to go to match Brady in total postseason wins -- his 17 still pale in comparison to Brady's 35 -- but at this point in Brady's career, he only had 12 to his name.
The number 17 carries additional meaning beyond Kansas City's total of one-possession wins. The Chiefs and Eagles will meet in New Orleans with 17 wins each. Sunday marked Mahomes' 17th career postseason victory. The Eagles' last and only Super Bowl triumph occurred in a year ending in 17 (2017). Four players remain from that Eagles team: Johnson, defensive end Brandon Graham, kicker Jake Elliott and long snapper Rick Lovato.
"This is a great football team we're playing," Mahomes said. "They're great on offense. They're great on defense and special teams. We played them in a close Super Bowl a couple of years ago, but they've added players and have got even better. It'll take our best football to win."
If their last Super Bowl meeting is a predictor of what awaits them in New Orleans, it will indeed take their best football to win. Philadelphia and Kansas City produced a thrilling back-and-forth affair that very much felt like the best Super Bowl in the game's history for most of the contest before an anticlimactic ending saw the Chiefs emerge victorious.
This time around, it feels even more momentous. For the Eagles, a win would mean sweet revenge and just their second Super Bowl in franchise history, a crowning achievement for a coach in Sirianni who was nearly run out of town a year ago.
For Reid, it would be another win over his former employer on the biggest stage. And for his Chiefs, it would mean a permanent place in history as the greatest dynasty of all.
Mahomes is wisely avoiding focusing on the latter. But even he couldn't completely sidestep the historical significance of the game that awaits him.
"Not necessarily," he said if the chance to three-peat adds meaning to the game. "I put every single season as its own season. Every team is different. You get new guys, you get guys that have to step up in different roles. I just go about my business and try to prepare everybody to be in the best possible situation to succeed.
"Obviously, it will be awesome. I think it will be something that I look back at the end of my career if we're able to go out there and get that three-peat, but at the same time, you just treat it as one season and one Super Bowl run, which is always hard to do."
