Vince Lombardi's Packers say don't call Chiefs' quest for 3 straight titles a first

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The story line headed into the Super Bowl revolves around the Kansas City Chiefs' quest to become the first team to win three straight Super Bowl titles.

Just don't call it the NFL's first three-peat.

While all eight teams that won back-to-back Super Bowls before Kansas City did it the past two seasons lost before making it back for a third, the NFL has had two runs of three straight championships — both by Green Bay.

Curly Lambeau's Packers won the NFL titles from 1929-31 before there was even a postseason and Vince Lombardi's crew in the 1960s also did it. Green Bay won the NFL title in 1965 — the year before the AFL and NFL champs first played in what is now known as the Super Bowl — and then the Packers won the first two Super Bowls against the AFL champions for an NFL three-peat that the players still take pride in having achieved.

“If Kansas city wins, I don't want to hear about the only three-time champions,” Hall of Fame linebacker Dave Robinson said. “That's BS.”

Robinson's Packers won the 1965 championship with a 23-12 win over Cleveland, holding Jim Brown to just 50 yards rushing in his final NFL game.

The Bills won the title in the upstart AFL that season, beating the Chargers 23-0.

“There was no doubt in anybody's mind, AFL guy or NFL guy, that the Green Bay Packers were the best team in pro football at that point,” Robinson said. “It wasn’t close.”

A few months later, the league agreed to merge. They played separate regular-season schedules in 1966-69 before the merger became fully operational in 1970 but the champions of both leagues played for the ultimate prize in pro football in what later became known as the Super Bowl.

The Packers easily beat the AFL's best, topping Kansas City 35-10 in the first Super Bowl and then beating Oakland 33-14 the following year.

Lombardi retired as Packers coach after that game and the dynasty ended with Green Bay missing the playoffs in 1968 and the AFL's New York Jets upsetting Baltimore in Super Bowl 3.

“If he stuck around one more year, we would have won three straight Super Bowls,” Robinson said. “No one thought the Super Bowl would be as big as it was because the NFL was a landslide over the AFL those years. We would have beaten the Jets. They were a fine team but we would have beaten them.”

Robinson, who grew up cheering for the New York Giants, is backing the Eagles on Sunday but more for his attachment to fellow Penn State alum Saquon Barkley than any deep-seated hatred of the Chiefs.

While the Packers do feel slighted, they also respect what the Chiefs have accomplished these last few years with coach Andy Reid, quarterback Patrick Mahomes and tight end Travis Kelce.

“First of all, yes, it does bother me,” Hall of Fame guard Jerry Kramer said in a phone interview. “I'm aware of it. I'm not crying. I'm not hysterical. I'm not having a fit. But there's a little resentment there. But when I look at the Kansas City Chiefs and I see the quality of play and I know the coach from Green Bay and I watch Mahomes and Kelce, they're doing everything well. They are a great football team. I understand that and I appreciate that and I know how difficult that is.”

Even if the Chiefs do win Sunday for their third straight championship and fourth in six years, the Packers still hold something over them. Green Bay also won NFL titles in 1961-62 and is the only team with five championships in a seven-year span.

“We’ll have to start talking about five out of seven,” Kramer said. “They still have a little hill to climb. I've gone from three in a row to five out of seven. I hope they do it, really. My life has been complete. I've had a wonderful ride.”

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FILE_ Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid is doused after their win against the Philadelphia Eagles at the NFL Super Bowl 57 football game, Sunday, Feb. 12, 2023, in Glendale, Ariz. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum, File)

FILE_ Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi cheers on his champion team as they swamp the Kansas City Chiefs during Super Bowl I in Los Angeles, Calif., Jan. 15, 1967. (AP Photo/File)

FILE - Football Commissioner Pete Rozelle, left, presents the trophy to Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi after they beat the Kansas City Chiefs in the Super Bowl in Los Angeles, Jan. 15, 1967. (AP Photo/File)

FILE - In this Jan. 14, 1968 photo, Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi is carried off the field after his team defeated the Oakland Raiders 33-14 in Super Bowl II in Miami, Fla. (AP Photo/File)

FILE - In this Jan. 15, 1967, file photo, Green Bay Packers' Klijah Pitts (22) goes over right tackle to the Kansas City Chiefs' five-yard line, for a six-yard gain before being brought down by Kansas City's Johnny Robinson in the fourth quarter of Super Bowl I in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/File)

FILE - Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi is carried off Lambeau Field on the shoulders of fullback Jimmy Taylor, left, and Paul Hornung after winning the NFL championship when they defeated the Cleveland Browns 23-12 in Green Bay, Wis., on Jan. 2, 1966. (AP Photo/File)

FILE - Green Bay Packers running back Donny Anderson (44) finds a hole in the Oakland Raiders defense and scores a touchdown during Super Bowl II at the Orange Bowl in Miami, Fla., on Sunday, Jan. 14, 1968. (AP Photo/File)

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump said Iran wants to negotiate with Washington after his threat to strike the Islamic Republic over its bloody crackdown on protesters, a move coming as activists said Monday the death toll in the nationwide demonstrations rose to at least 544.

Iran had no immediate reaction to the news, which came after the foreign minister of Oman — long an interlocutor between Washington and Tehran — traveled to Iran this weekend. It also remains unclear just what Iran could promise, particularly as Trump has set strict demands over its nuclear program and its ballistic missile arsenal, which Tehran insists is crucial for its national defense.

Meanwhile Monday, Iran called for pro-government demonstrators to head to the streets in support of the theocracy, a show of force after days of protests directly challenging the rule of 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Iranian state television aired chants from the crowd, who shouted “Death to America!” and “Death to Israel!”

Trump and his national security team have been weighing a range of potential responses against Iran including cyberattacks and direct strikes by the U.S. or Israel, according to two people familiar with internal White House discussions who were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

“The military is looking at it, and we’re looking at some very strong options,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Sunday night. Asked about Iran’s threats of retaliation, he said: “If they do that, we will hit them at levels that they’ve never been hit before.”

Trump said that his administration was in talks to set up a meeting with Tehran, but cautioned that he may have to act first as reports of the death toll in Iran mount and the government continues to arrest protesters.

“I think they’re tired of being beat up by the United States,” Trump said. “Iran wants to negotiate.”

He added: “The meeting is being set up, but we may have to act because of what’s happening before the meeting. But a meeting is being set up. Iran called, they want to negotiate.”

Iran through country's parliamentary speaker warned Sunday that the U.S. military and Israel would be “legitimate targets” if America uses force to protect demonstrators.

More than 10,600 people also have been detained over the two weeks of protests, said the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, which has been accurate in previous unrest in recent years and gave the death toll. It relies on supporters in Iran crosschecking information. It said 496 of the dead were protesters and 48 were with security forces.

With the internet down in Iran and phone lines cut off, gauging the demonstrations from abroad has grown more difficult. The Associated Press has been unable to independently assess the toll. Iran’s government has not offered overall casualty figures.

Those abroad fear the information blackout is emboldening hard-liners within Iran’s security services to launch a bloody crackdown. Protesters flooded the streets in the country’s capital and its second-largest city on Saturday night into Sunday morning. Online videos purported to show more demonstrations Sunday night into Monday, with a Tehran official acknowledging them in state media.

In Tehran, a witness told the AP that the streets of the capital empty at the sunset call to prayers each night. By the Isha, or nighttime prayer, the streets are deserted.

Part of that stems from the fear of getting caught in the crackdown. Police sent the public a text message that warned: “Given the presence of terrorist groups and armed individuals in some gatherings last night and their plans to cause death, and the firm decision to not tolerate any appeasement and to deal decisively with the rioters, families are strongly advised to take care of their youth and teenagers.”

Another text, which claimed to come from the intelligence arm of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, also directly warned people not to take part in demonstrations.

“Dear parents, in view of the enemy’s plan to increase the level of naked violence and the decision to kill people, ... refrain from being on the streets and gathering in places involved in violence, and inform your children about the consequences of cooperating with terrorist mercenaries, which is an example of treason against the country,” the text warned.

The witness spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity due to the ongoing crackdown.

The demonstrations began Dec. 28 over the collapse of the Iranian rial currency, which trades at over 1.4 million to $1, as the country’s economy is squeezed by international sanctions in part levied over its nuclear program. The protests intensified and grew into calls directly challenging Iran’s theocracy.

Nikhinson reported from aboard Air Force One.

In this frame grab from video obtained by the AP outside Iran, a masked demonstrator holds a picture of Iran's Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi during a protest in Tehran, Iran, Friday, January. 9, 2026. (UGC via AP)

In this frame grab from footage circulating on social media from Iran shows protesters taking to the streets despite an intensifying crackdown as the Islamic Republic remains cut off from the rest of the world in Tehran, Iran, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026.(UGC via AP)

In this frame grab from footage circulating on social media from Iran showed protesters once again taking to the streets of Tehran despite an intensifying crackdown as the Islamic Republic remains cut off from the rest of the world in Tehran, Iran, Saturday Jan. 10, 2026. (UGC via AP)