The Super Bowl three-peat eluded Bradshaw, Brady, Montana and Aikman. Now Mahomes takes his shot

Terry Bradshaw always wondered what might have been if his Pittsburgh Steelers had reached the Super Bowl either of the times they had a chance to win three in a row.

Ronnie Lott has long lamented just one bounce of the oblong ball that he believes could have helped send the San Francisco 49ers to the big game when they were in just about perfect position for a three-peat.

Kansas City is the first team to reach the Super Bowl after winning the previous two, which means Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs have done what Tom Brady, Joe Montana, Troy Aikman and Bradshaw couldn’t before them.

Now they’ll try to finish the job Sunday night against the Philadelphia Eagles in New Orleans.

“You got to have a lot of luck,” Lott said. “You got to find moments where you want the ball to bounce your way. And then the other thing is, you’ve just got to get over the idea that nobody thinks you can do it.”

There is one asterisk. Bart Starr led Green Bay to the 1965 NFL championship and the first two Super Bowl titles. Plus, John Elway retired after winning consecutive Super Bowls with the Denver Broncos.

Bradshaw and those Steel Curtain teams lost to the Oakland Raiders, coached by the late Pro Football Hall of Famer John Madden, in the AFC championship game during Pittsburgh’s first run as the two-time defending champ.

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The Steelers didn’t even make the playoffs the second time around, which was four years later.

“Had we gotten to the Super Bowl, then I would say the chances of a three-peat would have been very good because you are a defending champion and you’ve experienced a Super Bowl and winning a Super Bowl,” Bradshaw said. “It’s that long, drawn out football season where you’re just waiting to get to the playoffs. And it’s a difficult task.”

Roger Craig’s late fumble is what most remember when the 49ers lost at home to the Giants 15-13 on New York’s field goal on the final play of the NFC championship game during the 1990 season.

Lott, however, recalls in vivid detail — 34 years later — an earlier play when the Hall of Fame safety says Jeff Hostetler lost control of the ball in the backfield with him blitzing, but the ball bounced the Giants quarterback’s way instead of his.

A second consecutive 14-2 season with Montana, Jerry Rice and John Taylor amounted to nothing in the minds of the Niners. Besides the luck of the bounce, Lott was quick to bring up the health of the players — as was Montana.

“The seasons are long. The offseasons are short,” Montana said. “Usually you’re not at 100% strength, your body doesn’t have its usual time to prepare itself during the offseason. When you compound that over the years ... it makes it even worse.”

Aikman, running back Emmitt Smith and receiver Michael Irvin also got the Cowboys back to an NFC title game as two-time champs, but the Hall of Fame trio lost at San Francisco during the 1994 season, when Steve Young had taken over for Montana at QB.

Daryl Johnston, the fullback when Dallas became the first to win three Super Bowls in a span of four seasons, believes the Cowboys had an asterisk of their own.

After beating Buffalo for the title in consecutive years, owner Jerry Jones and coach Jimmy Johnson had their infamous and acrimonious split. Barry Switzer coached the team that fell short of a three-peat.

In the 38-28 loss to the Niners, the Cowboys turned over the ball the first three times they had it and trailed 21-0 halfway through the first quarter.

“So, you lose your head coach,” Johnston said. “Where would Kansas City be if they lost Andy Reid? And then to play the worst six minutes of football you’ve ever played as a group to start that game, it was just so unexpected.”

Coach Vince Lombardi left the Packers after winning the first two Super Bowls, and Green Bay didn’t make the playoffs the year Joe Namath led the New York Jets to their famous upset of Baltimore in Super Bowl 3.

The first of Miami’s consecutive titles is still the only undefeated season of the Super Bowl era, the 17-0 run during the 1972 season. The Dolphins lost their playoff opener when they were two-time champs.

The New England Patriots fell two victories short of a three-peat in 2005, the only chance they had to do that while winning six championships with Brady and coach Bill Belichick.

Mahomes is well aware of the history as the Chiefs try to to shrug off talk of a three-peat. A victory Sunday over Philadelphia would be the 29-year-old’s fourth Super Bowl title. Brady was 37 when he won the fourth of his record seven.

“I think you always want to leave a legacy and kind of make your imprint on history, but more than anything, you just want to accomplish a goal that you have with your teammates,” Mahomes said. “We know that’s a hard process. We know it’s hard week-in and week-out. But I’m proud of how our guys have kind of went about that process.”

Bradshaw still talks about how hard trying to three-peat was on him. As part of the Fox television crew covering the Super Bowl, the Hall of Famer will share the stage with the winning team, which could mean handing the Lombardi Trophy to Mahomes.

The 76-year-old Bradshaw remembers having a similar chance at history with the Fox crew when Brady’s 18-0 Patriots lost to the Giants in the Super Bowl to cap the 2007 season.

“So here I go again. Historical moment,” Bradshaw said. “I have no way that I could sit here and say Kansas City is going to lose.”

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AP Pro Football Writer Rob Maaddi in New Orleans and AP Sports Writer Dave Skretta in Kansas City, Missouri, contributed.

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