Three-peat, three-peat, three-peat. That was all you could hear on talk sports radio or sports debate shows in the lead-up to Super Bowl 59. And it turns out, after the Kansas City Chiefs lost an ugly one to the Philadelphia Eagles 40-22 in Super Bowl 59, it was all pointless blather… Or was it? Believe it or not, someone did earn a Super Bowl three-peat on Sunday. It just wasn’t who you would expect.
Advertisement
Darian Kinnard was drafted in the 5th round of the 2022 NFL Draft by the Chiefs. He remained on the team in 2023, though he was relegated to the practice squad. After picking up two Super Bowl rings in his first two NFL seasons, he departed for greener pastures. And whose pastures are more (kelly) green than those of the Philadelphia Eagles?
Fun fact: there was three-peat in the NFL this year
Eagles T Darian Kinnard has been a part of three straight Super Bowl winning teams in each of his NFL seasons
2022: Chiefs
2023: Chiefs (practice squad)
2024: Eagles pic.twitter.com/mw6n7pajq5— NFL on CBS (@NFLonCBS) February 11, 2025
There has never been a team to complete a three-peat, but there was one man that had done it before Kinnard completed the rare feat on Sunday. That man was Ken Norton Jr., who was a Dallas Cowboys stalwart during the first two Super Bowl championships of their 1990s dynasty in 1992 and 1993. However, he departed for the arch-rival San Francisco 49ers ahead of the 1994 season.
As fate would have it, his 49ers became the ones to thwart his old Dallas buddies’ attempt at their own three-peat (just as Kinnard did with his old K.C. teammates) during the 1994 NFC Championship. San Francisco would then go on to win Super Bowl 29 in blowout fashion, giving the three-time Pro Bowler and two-time All-Pro three straight titles.
It has to be said, however, that Norton’s accomplishment is much more impressive considering he was a regular starter, while Kinnard barely played.
Darian Kinnard barely played for his 3 Super Bowl rings
Kinnard was born in Ohio but bred in Northeastern Tennessee in Knoxville and Kingsport. After moving back to Ohio for his sophomore high school season, Kinnard completed his secondary school career as one of the top offensive line recruits in his region.
He signed on with Kentucky and went on to an impressive collegiate career. He made 44 appearances for the Wildcats, including 39 starts. He was named a consensus All-American as a senior in 2021. Still, that wasn’t enough to boost his draft stock, so he became a Day 3 pick for a Chiefs team coming off of back-to-back playoff disappointments in 2020 and 2021.
Kinnard played just six special teams snaps for the Chiefs during their 2022 Super Bowl season, and he spent the entire 2023 campaign on the practice squad, though he did still receive a ring after that campaign.
Could this depth lineman have been the Chiefs’ missing piece? They fell short the two years before his arrival, won the two years he was with the team, and then got shellacked by his new team in the first year after he left. It’s a fun thought.
The offensive tackle joined the Eagles ahead of the 2024 campaign, and he was again a depth piece. However, he got to play three offensive snaps on top of seven special teams snaps in Week 8. He also played a full complement of snaps with the rest of the backups in Philly’s Week 18 win, though he did not get in during the Eagles’ playoff run.
