The Kansas City Chiefs are making their move to win their third Super Bowl game in a row. It seems that they aren’t going to be the only winner if they are successful in that regard as Pat Riley is also eyeing some expansions on his bank account as he owns the trademark for the word “three-peat”, which is commonly associated with teams winning championships three times in a row.

So far, it does seem that there’s more than it seems when it comes to trademarks. The Chiefs do not actually give two cents about it, and while Riley’s teams never even won three titles in a row – he did collect royalties when there were teams that used the same term, which says a lot about how much he could get with the NFL being the biggest league in the United States alone.

The Super Bowl comes in this weekend, and one can say that Riley is definitely rooting for the Chiefs to win somehow, and he’ll come to collect soon enough with the trademark in effect just as he did in the past few years.

The Three-Peat Trademark

First off, Riley did not invent the term three-peat – let’s clear out that fact. He did, however, have it trademarked back in 1989 when he heard Lakers coach Byron Scott use it prior to the start of the 1988-89 season. In three decades, Riley has controlled the term’s commercial rights, and it seems that there’s more to expect with the way the Chiefs are looming over the feat.

The Chicago Bulls won a three-peat from 1991 to 1993 and Riley took home $300,000 in that playoff run alone. That would not be the last as he earned more in the Bulls’ second three-peat from 1996 to 1998. It’s not only in the NBA as well, with the New York Yankees scoring three World Series wins in a row from 1998 to 2000, and then the Lakers winning it all in 2000, 2001, and 2002 led by head coach Phil Jackson with Shaquille O’Neal and the late Kobe Bryant.

Riley, however, claims that he has given most of the royalty money to charities, which seems to be a good act to celebrate a team’s success. It is also worth noting that any team that Riley has coached or managed has never won three straight championships – which is quite ironic at this point.

The NFL Repercussions

Should Kansas City win the Super Bowl LIX, they will be the first in the history of the league to achieve the said feat. On the other hand, a win by the Philadelphia Eagles would cost Riley at least millions by just preventing the Chiefs from winning it all. At least you know where Riley’s betting money is on.

There have also been rumors that the Chiefs are finding a way to avoid trademark issues – with talks of a trademark application for the word “Pat-Trick” still in the works. This term would definitely be a nod to winning three championships while honoring its star QB Patrick Mahomes.

Darren Rovell, however, reports that Riley and the NFL have already reached an agreement as a workaround for the trademark – with the NFL allowed to sell merchandise in celebration of its first “three-peat” if the Chiefs can win it all this Sunday. How much Riley would earn off this deal, however, remains undisclosed – but some predict that it would go straight to the Pat Riley Family Foundation.