NASHVILLE – Mike Keith, the longtime radio voice of the Tennessee Titans, isn’t necessarily predicting a victory for the many hues of blue crew when it visits Kansas City’s Arrowhead Stadium to face the Chiefs in the AFC championship game.
He knows the Chiefs and their magical quarterback, Patrick Mahomes, are seven-point favorites. He also knows that only twice since the NFL expanded the playoffs to six teams from each conference in 1990 has a No. 6 seed, which Tennessee is, reached the Super Bowl. Both teams – the 2005 Pittsburgh Steelers and the 2010 Green Bay Packers – went on to win the Lombardi Trophy, though, knocking off their conference’s top three seeds in the process.
The Titans (11-7) would complete the seed-sweeping portion of that feat Sunday with a win against the No. 2 Chiefs (13-4) in their 3:05 p.m. EST matchup that will be televised by CBS. Tennessee beat the No. 3 New England Patriots 20-13 in the wild-card round and the No. 1 Baltimore Ravens 28-12 in the divisional round.
However, Keith also was in Jacksonville on Jan. 23, 2000, when the Titans faced the Jaguars in the AFC title game. Tennessee won 33-14 that day to reach Super Bowl XXXIV in Atlanta, where the St. Louis Rams held on for a 23-16 win.
“The Jaguars had scored 62 points on Miami the previous week,” he said. “They were rolling. We were solid underdogs against a Jacksonville team that was supposed to be at a coronation point.”