The San Francisco 49ers and Kansas City Chiefs are two of the NFL’s most successful NFL franchises of modern times, boasting eight Super Bowl titles between them.
The 49ers achieved dynasty status in the 1980s under the leadership of Bill Walsh, with the likes of Joe Montana and Jerry Rice helping deliver four championships in a nine-year span.
The Chiefs had to wait 50 years to follow up their Super Bowl IV success, but are positioning themselves as the ‘team of the 2020s’ with Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes masterminding appearances in four of the past five Super Bowls.
Before the pair get set to lock horns in a repeat of their 2020 showdown, here is a look at five legendary Super Bowl moments the teams have produced for us so far.
The start of a dynasty
The 49ers set the tone for their ‘team of the ‘80s’ status in January 1982 with a hard-fought 26-21 win over the Cincinnati Bengals in the Pontiac Silverdome in Detroit. The contest itself was a tense one, with a 49ers goal-line stand sealing the win, but that season’s signature play came in the Niners’ NFC Championship game, when Montana found Dwight Clarke in the end zone for an iconic play that went down in history simply as ‘The Catch’.
Kansas City end 50 years of hurt
After falling short against the Green Bay Packers in the very first Super Bowl in 1967, the Chiefs claimed the spoils in Super Bowl IV, upsetting the favoured Minnesota Vikings, thanks to an MVP performance from quarterback Len Dawson.
It took half a century for Kansas City to return to the big game, but they ended their drought in style when Patrick Mahomes led his side to a comeback win over the 49ers in Miami.
Mahomes doubles up
The Chiefs followed up their Super Bowl LIV win by returning to the title game a year later, only for Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to deny them back-to-back titles. Mahomes and company would be back after the 2022 season though and the QB would again orchestrate a come-from-behind victory, this time reeling back in Jalen Hurts and the Philadelphia Eagles in a 38-35 thriller.
49ers’ back-to-back titles
Winning consecutive Super Bowls is deceptively hard, with only seven teams having hoisted up back-to-back Vince Lombardi Trophies.
The 49ers rounded out the 1980s with such a feat. John Taylor hauled in a Joe Montana touchdown pass with 32 seconds remaining to see off the Bengals in Super Bowl XXIII, before the Niners handed out the biggest-ever Super Bowl beating 12 months later, leaving John Elway and the Denver Broncos reeling after a 55-10 romp for their fourth title.
Steve Young gets the monkey off his back
You never want to be the player that has to follow in the footsteps of a team legend. An ageing Joe Montana, complete with four Super Bowl rings, left the 49ers for the Chiefs after the 1992 season, leaving Steve Young with the keys to the Niners offense. After shining as a back-up, Young quickly emerged as one of the best QBs in the league, winning NFL MVP honours in 1992, but was still in the shadow of his predecessor.
He needed a Super Bowl win to get the monkey off his back and that’s exactly what he did in 1994, throwing a Super Bowl record six touchdown passes in a 49-26 takedown of the San Diego Chargers.
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