Tracy Wolfson stood subsequent to Patrick Mahomes throughout an interview that’s grow to be an annual custom.
“We meet once more,” the CBS sideline reporter advised 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 crew to repeat as Tremendous Bowl champion because the 2004 New England Patriots is one win from changing into the primary crew 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 crew to “three-peat” because the Lakers did it from 2000 to 2002.
That crew led by Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal accomplished the franchise’s unfinished enterprise from the Showtime Period underneath Pat Riley, when the Lakers gained 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 deliver it to fruition. They bought swept by the Detroit Pistons within the 1989 NBA Finals.
On the similar time throughout city, at a faculty tucked behind tree-lined Sundown Boulevard, Sue Enquist felt like “kindred spirits” with the NBA stars.
Enquist was coach of the UCLA softball crew and the Bruins have been within the midst of their very own three-peat, profitable NCAA titles in 1988, 1989 and 1990. Till 2023, when Oklahoma gained its third of 4 consecutive nationwide titles, no NCAA softball crew had gained the Girls’s Faculty World Collection three consecutive instances because the Bruins.
Enquist, now a guide engaged on crew 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 stress and privilege of chasing a three-peat at any degree.
“It’s like sprinting on a tightrope, proper?” Enquist mentioned. “Zero margin for error.”
Solely 9 NFL groups have gained 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 crew to make it to a 3rd consecutive Tremendous Bowl after repeating as champions.
“It’ll be one thing I’ll look again on the finish of my profession, if we’re in a position to go on the market and get that three-peat,” Mahomes advised reporters after the Chiefs held off the Payments within the AFC championship sport, “however on the similar time, you simply deal with it as one season and one Tremendous Bowl run, which is all the time onerous to do.”
Greater than expertise, method or techniques, a gentle tradition and perception are a very powerful substances to pulling off a three-peat.
“There may be such a fanaticism round remaining disciplined, not getting too excessive, not getting too low,” Enquist mentioned. “And a humility. We have now an optimism that we’re going to do that, however not a cockiness that we will mail it in.”
UCLA coach Sue Enquist talks to her crew throughout a break in play in opposition to Louisiana State within the 2004 Girls’s Faculty World Collection.
(Jerry Laizure / Related Press)
As an alternative 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 commonplace.
“Once you win first time, you set the goal in your again, you arrange the usual the place all people’s going after you,” Pintaric mentioned. “So second time, it’s even tougher to defend that. After which third time turns into that a lot tougher. As a result of each time you retain profitable, I felt all the time that that focus on turned greater and larger.”
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 last 4 instances since their final championship, and losses in these video games nonetheless damage Pintaric greater than the enjoyment of a title.
Every celebratory bounce into the pool after profitable 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 beginning of his kids.
The pure pleasure hit Enquist together with a sigh of reduction every time the Bruins celebrated a softball championship. The primary particular person to win NCAA softball titles as a participant and coach, Enquist discovered to exhale the expectations with every celebration. Then the feelings rapidly morphed into pleasure for the following season.
With a grateful smile, Enquist typically began eager about the following season’s lineup whereas on the aircraft coming house.
“Whether or not you probably did it or not, you give your self grace,” Enquist mentioned, “and say, ‘Wow guys, that was a terrific journey.’”