How many teams have tried and failed to win three straight Super Bowls?

Nearly 12 months ago, after helping lead the Kansas City Chiefs past the San Francisco 49ers for their second straight Super Bowl title, quarterback Patrick Mahomes laid down the gauntlet to the rest of the NFL: "Next year in New Orleans, we're gonna do it again."

That was quite the claim, considering that no team in league history had ever won three Super Bowls in a row. But a year later, Mahomes is just two wins away from calling his shot, as he gets set to lead the Chiefs against Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills in the AFC Championship Game. It hasn't always been pretty for K.C. this year, but after a 15-2 record in the regular season, they earned home-field for the entire AFC playoffs and fended off the Houston Texans in the Divisional Round.

Win again on Sunday, and they'll be Super Bowl-bound for the third straight year — and one more victory away from going where eight teams have tried and failed to go before them.

How many teams have tried to win three straight Super Bowls?

Eight previous teams have won back-to-back Super Bowl titles. But every single one of them stumbled somewhere along the road for a threepeat.

Not only has no team ever won three straight Super Bowls; no team has even appeared in three straight Super Bowls, some history that Mahomes and Co. can make if they beat the Bills on Sunday night. And the list above should also serve as a reminder of just how rare it is to get to see something like this, and how, even for a player as great as Mahomes, this opportunity might not come around again.

Which team came closest to winning three straight Super Bowls?

Of the eight previous repeat champs, three of them missed the playoffs entirely. The 1968 Green Bay Packers took a step back in year one post-Vince Lombardi, while the 1980 Pittsburgh Steelers finally saw Father Time come for their Steel Curtain defense and the Denver Broncos needed a reset after the retirement of legendary QB John Elway.

The 1974 Dolphins and 2005 Patriots each fell short in the Divisional Round, while three different teams made it to conference championship weekend before finally bowing out. Two of those games were particularly memorable: The New York Giants' ferocious defense knocked Joe Montana out of the 1990 NFC title game, prompting John Summerall's famous "there will be no threepeat," while Steve Young finally got over the hump and into the Super Bowl with a win over Troy Aikman and the Dallas Cowboys.

Mahomes has gotten to that hurdle now. Will he be able to go further than any team before him? We'll have to wait and find out.