Tracy Wolfson stood subsequent to Patrick Mahomes throughout an interview that’s grow to be an annual custom.
“We meet again,” the CBS sideline reporter instructed the star quarterback after the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs superior to their fifth Tremendous Bowl within the final six seasons.
After defeating the Buffalo Payments within the AFC championship sport, the Chiefs are attempting to return to a different acquainted mountaintop. The primary NFL group to repeat as Tremendous Bowl champion for the reason that 2004 New England Patriots is one win from changing into the primary group to win three consecutive Tremendous Bowls. A win over the Philadelphia Eagles on Feb. 9 would make the Chiefs the primary NHL, NBA, NFL or MLB group to “three-peat” for the reason that Lakers did it from 2000 to 2002.
That group led by Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal accomplished the franchise’s unfinished enterprise from the Showtime Period underneath Pat Riley, when the Lakers received NBA titles in 1987 and 1988, and with a 3rd title in view, guard Byron Scott labeled it the pursuit of a “three-peat.”
Riley trademarked the phrase, however the Lakers couldn’t carry it to fruition. They obtained swept by the Detroit Pistons within the 1989 NBA Finals.
On the similar time throughout city, at a college tucked behind tree-lined Sundown Boulevard, Sue Enquist felt like “kindred spirits” with the NBA stars.
Enquist was coach of the UCLA softball group and the Bruins have been within the midst of their very own three-peat, successful NCAA titles in 1988, 1989 and 1990. Till 2023, when Oklahoma received its third of 4 consecutive nationwide titles, no NCAA softball group had received the Ladies’s School World Collection three consecutive occasions for the reason that Bruins.
Enquist, now a guide engaged on group constructing and tradition whereas instructing a grasp’s program in transformative management and training at UCLA, realizes solely a choose group of athletes is aware of the strain and privilege of chasing a three-peat at any degree.
“It’s like sprinting on a tightrope, right?” Enquist mentioned. “Zero margin for error.”
Solely 9 NFL groups have received back-to-back Tremendous Bowls. Three repeat champions — the 1975 Pittsburgh Steelers, 1989 San Francisco 49ers and 1993 Dallas Cowboys — had their three-peat bids finish in convention championship video games. The Chiefs are the one group to make it to a 3rd consecutive Tremendous Bowl after repeating as champions.
“It’ll be something I’ll look back at the end of my career, if we’re able to go out there and get that three-peat,” Mahomes instructed reporters after the Chiefs held off the Payments within the AFC championship sport, “but at the same time, you just treat it as one season and one Super Bowl run, which is always hard to do.”
Greater than expertise, approach or ways, a gentle tradition and perception are a very powerful components to pulling off a three-peat.
“There is such a fanaticism around remaining disciplined, not getting too high, not getting too low,” Enquist mentioned. “And a humility. We have an optimism that we’re going to do this, but not a cockiness that we can mail it in.”
UCLA coach Sue Enquist talks to her group throughout a break in play towards Louisiana State within the 2004 Ladies’s School World Collection.
(Jerry Laizure / Related Press)
As a substitute of permitting complacency to set in with every championship run, Marko Pintaric was motivated extra by every victory throughout USC’s six consecutive males’s water polo titles from 2008 to 2013. Pintaric, who rose from an assistant on these groups to teach in 2019, has been combating to take care of the championship customary.
“When you win first time, you put the target on your back, you set up the standard where everybody’s going after you,” Pintaric mentioned. “So second time, it’s even harder to defend that. And then third time becomes that much harder. Because every time you keep winning, I felt always that that target became bigger and bigger.”
Six years faraway from this system’s final NCAA title, Pintaric says his awe for that dynasty has solely grown. The Trojans have performed within the NCAA remaining 4 occasions since their final championship, and losses in these video games nonetheless damage Pintaric greater than the enjoyment of a title.
Every celebratory leap into the pool after successful a championship was the peak of euphoria, Pintaric mentioned. To the previous USC All-American and father of two, the emotion is second solely to witnessing the start of his kids.
The pure pleasure hit Enquist together with a sigh of aid every time the Bruins celebrated a softball championship. The primary individual to win NCAA softball titles as a participant and coach, Enquist discovered to exhale the expectations with every celebration. Then the feelings shortly morphed into pleasure for the subsequent season.
With a grateful smile, Enquist typically began fascinated with the subsequent season’s lineup whereas on the airplane coming residence.
“Whether you did it or not, you give yourself grace,” Enquist mentioned, “and say, ‘Wow guys, that was a great journey.’”
