On Sunday, the Kansas City Chiefs have a chance to make NFL history. With a win over the NFC champion Philadelphia Eagles, the Chiefs will become the first team in the 59-year history of the Super Bowl to win three in a row.
For that matter, going back to origin of the NFL in 1920, only one team has ever won three NFL championships in a row. That was the Green Bay Packers led by head coach Curly Lambeau, who won the league title in 1929, 1930 and 1931. But in those days, there was no Super Bowl. In fact, there were no playoffs, and no divisions. The NFL champion was simply the team with the best record at the end of the season.
Teams did not even necessarily play an equal number of games. For example, when the Packers won the first of their 13 total NFL championships in the 1929 season, they went undefeated, with one game tied, in 13 games. The second-place team, the New York Giants, won more games â 13 to the Packers 12 â but also played more, finishing with a 13-1-1 record.
That is why the Chiefs stand on the brink of a truly historic achievement. But another team, the New England Patriots, came tantalizing close to pulling off this feat â and may have done it, if not for the still-unexplained benching of a key player.
Patriots Came One Win Away From Three-Peat
The Patriots were reigning Super Bowl champions, having achieved history of their own by coming back from a third-quarter deficit of 28-3 against the NFC champion Atlanta Falcons in Super Bowl 51 to win in overtime, 34-28. Against the Eagles, the Patriots staged another, albeit smaller comeback, falling behind 22-12 in the third quarter to finally take a 33-32 lead with 9:22 remaining the game.
But the lead didn’t last. The Patriots defense was the NFL’s fifth-stingiest that season allowing just 18.5 points per game. But against the Eagles in the Super Bowl, the Patriots defense could not stop the bleeding. The Eagles put up 41 points and, after taking that one-point lead, New England never scored again.
Why was the Patriots defense so bad? As always, the reasons were complex but one important and obvious one stood out. Head coach Bill Belichick benched the team’s starting cornerback, Malcolm Butler. And why did that happen? No one knows, other than Belichick, his assistants and, presumably, Butler himself. Seven years have gone by and none of them have talked.
Until now. Sort of. In an interview on a Boston radio station, Butler seemed to hint that the benching had something to do with his presence at a party during Super Bowl week â and photos of that party.
Instagram Photos Allegedly At Heart of Butler Benching
âYou were told, âDonât go out this week,’â 98.5 The SportsHub co-host Jim Murray said to Butler on the air Wednesday. âThere were Instagram photos of you out and about and after that it was like, âWell, he didnât listen. So, weâre going to bench his ass for the Super Bowl.’â
Butler’s answer was evasive, but intriguing.
âI ainât seen them photos,â the now-retired, 34-year-old replied. âBut like, we are grown men. We do got a time to be at work and then a time to be messing off. So, yeah.â
Was Butler’s pre-Super Bowl partying the reason for his benching, and at least part of the reason they lost? Butler appeared to at least partly confirm that theory. But one thing is certain.
The following season, the Patriots got back to the Super Bowl and this time, they won, defeating the Los Angeles Rams 13-3. The victory would have been the third in a row for the Patriots, giving them the historic achievement that the Chiefs will aim for on Sunday.
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