Heading into Super Bowl 59, much was made about how the Kansas City Chiefs had the opportunity to become the first team in NFL history to win three straight Super Bowls.
That, of course, didn't happen, as the two-time defending champs took a 40-22 thumping at the hands of the Philadelphia Eagles. But don't let that 18-point margin of victory fool you because the game was never that close, as the Birds took their foot off the gas a touch after taking a 34-0 lead late in the third quarter.
Truth be told, the Green Bay Packers and their fans now don't have to be quite as embarrassed about the team's 22-10 loss to the Eagles in the Wild Card Round because it's quite clear that Jalen Hurts & Co. were on a mission during this postseason.
Furthermore, Philadelphia actually did Green Bay a favor on Sunday night. While it's true that no team has ever won three straight Super Bowls, one has to remember that the NFL had been a thing for more than four decades before the first Super Bowl was played, which obviously means that plenty of champions were crowned during that time.
And not only were the Packers the only team to win three straight NFL Championships, they did it twice!
The Packers won three straight NFL titles on two separate occasions
In the early years of the NFL, specifically from 1920 to 1932, there was no title game to decide a league champion.
Instead, the champion was determined by which team had the best win-loss percentage, with ties being excluded from the equation. And in 1929 (12-0-1), 1930 (10-3-1), and 1931 (12-2-0), that team was the Green Bay Packers, thus making them the first team in league history to be crowned NFL Champions three years in a row.
The streak nearly reached four in 1932, when Green Bay went 10-3-1 to finish as the runner-up behind none other than the Chicago Bears, who went 7-1-6.
As mentioned, ties were excluded from the equation, thus giving the Bears a .875 win-loss percentage, while the Packers came in at .769. The NFL Championship Game was implemented the following season.
The Packers' second three-peat came just as the Super Bowl era was getting underway.
Led by the great Vince Lombardi, Green Bay won its third NFL Championship in five seasons to close out the 1965 campaign, defeating the defending champion Cleveland Browns in the title game.
The 1966 season, of course, was the first campaign in which the NFL champion would square off with the AFL champion in what was then called the AFL-NFL World Championship Game, which was later renamed the Super Bowl.
After going 12-2 during the '66 regular season, Green Bay defeated the Dallas Cowboys in the NFL Championship Game and then went on to wallop the AFL champion Kansas City Chiefs, 35-10, in what we now call Super Bowl 1. Legendary quarterback Bart Starr, who'd already won NFL MVP, also took MVP honors in the title game.
In 1967, after going 9-4-1 in the regular season, the Packers took down the Los Angeles Rams in the opening round of the postseason and then again took down Dallas in the NFL Championship Game in the famed "Ice Bowl" at Lambeau Field, thus giving Green Bay a third consecutive title for the second time in franchise history.
The Packers then went on to defeat the Oakland Raiders in Super Bowl 2, with Starr earning a second straight Most Valuable Player trophy.
Green Bay went 6-7-1 in 1968 and failed to make the postseason, thus ending the streak.
So, again, while no team has won three straight Super Bowls, don't let anyone tell you that no NFL team has won three consecutive championships.