AFC TITLE GAME
New England Patriots (12-5) at Kansas City Chiefs (13-4)Time & TV: 6:40 p.m. EST (CBS)Opening line: Chiefs by 3Series: Chiefs lead, 18-15-3Last time: Patriots beat Chiefs 43-40 on Oct. 14, 2018Last week (divisional round): Patriots beat Los Angeles Chargers 41-28; Chiefs beat Indianapolis Colts 31-13Noteworthy: The Chiefs were founded by Lamar Hunt, the namesake of the Lamar Hunt Trophy awarded to the AFC champion. But they will be hosting the AFC title game for the first time after ending a 25-year drought in divisional playoff games last week.— The Associated Press
KANSAS CITY, Mo. - It seems football fans everywhere are suddenly on the Kansas City Chiefs' bandwagon, enthralled by their record-setting young quarterback and exciting playmakers and hopeful their amiable veteran coach can finally win the big one.
Then again, maybe they're just fans of anybody facing the New England Patriots.
The Patriots have dominated the NFL for nearly two decades, and the coach-quarterback combination of Bill Belichick and Tom Brady will be playing in an eighth consecutive AFC title game tonight when New England visits the Chiefs at frigid - and hostile - Arrowhead Stadium.
But whereas Brady & Co. once instilled awe in their opponents, the Chiefs view their showdown as an opportunity for Patrick Mahomes to take the baton as the league's best quarterback and for Kansas City, seeking its first Super Bowl appearance in 49 years, to surpass the Patriots as the NFL's "it" team.
"It'll be huge," said Mahomes, the No. 10 overall pick in the 2017 draft who has been stellar in his first season starting for the Chiefs. "When I got here, the goal was to win the AFC championship and get to the Super Bowl and win that. To do that early in my career, it would be a huge thing."
This is a matchup of two quite dichotomous teams.
New England has won five Super Bowls during the Belichick-Brady era, setting all kinds of records along the way. The cruel efficiency with which the Patriots have sliced up the AFC has made them the bane of fans everywhere but New England. They have taken on the kind of unbeatable aura that accompanied the New York Yankees teams captained by Derek Jeter and the Chicago Bulls teams led by Michael Jordan.
It's not just petty jealousy, though. Many fans have been turned off by the scandals that have involved the Patriots - the so-called "Deflategate" and "Spygate" incidents, with the NFL handing down discipline in each case - and other instances over the years that have saddled them with a rather unsavory reputation.
Brady has mostly shrugged it off. So has Belichick, who almost seems to embrace the villain role even as his team tries to advance to a third consecutive Super Bowl, something only two other franchises have accomplished.
"I don't think about it too much, what people might say or think," said Brady, whose team is a rare playoff underdog tonight. "I know we're playing against a very good football team. They're the first seed for a reason. They've had a great season, and we're going to have to go into a really tough environment and play our best football, and it's a great opportunity for us."
On the other side are the Chiefs, a franchise that dominated the AFC throughout the 1990s but reached only one conference title game. They were the league's worst franchise six years ago, when Andy Reid came aboard, but they have become a perennial playoff team that always was missing that certain something.
They found it when they drafted Mahomes, who has shattered just about every franchise single-season passing record already, and his down-home style has made him a fan favorite. Kids dressed up like him for Halloween, his curly Mohawk hairstyle has become the trend at local barbershops, and the aw-shucks way Mahomes has embraced his stunning success has only made him more endearing.
Now he'll try to do something really special by leading the Chiefs to the biggest game of all for the first time since they won Super Bowl IV in January 1970.
"I think he's a great player on a great team that's very well-coached," Belichick said. "They have a great scheme and a great system. He's got a ton of weapons, so he'll be tough to handle, as will their entire offense, as will their entire team. We'll need our best game."
The Patriots beat the Chiefs in a 43-40 shootout on Oct. 14 in Foxborough, Massachusetts, but both teams are different these days. New England has since lost wide receiver Josh Gordon to an indefinite suspension from the league, and the Chiefs waived Kareem Hunt because of off-the-field trouble that led to him being placed on the reserve/commissioner exempt list.
In addition, Kansas City is poised to have two veteran members of its defense back from injuries - linebacker Justin Houston and safety Eric Berry.
"I mean, that was Week 6. That was a long time ago," Patriots safety Patrick Chung said of his team's most recent win against the Chiefs. "We can't really worry about that. They're a better team and they're on a roll. It's the two best teams in the AFC, so you can't really worry about, 'Well, we beat you guys last, so we're going to win.'"
New England hasn't lost at home since early in the 2017 season, but it's been a struggle away from Gillette Stadium. The Patriots were 3-5 on the road during the regular season, their worst mark since 2009, including losing back-to-back games in Miami and Pittsburgh in December.
They haven't won a postseason game on the road since the 2006 season, and away teams have lost 10 consecutive conference championship games.
"I don't get caught up in all that," Reid said. "They're a heck of a team. I mentioned that before, if you're talking about a dynasty in the National Football League, they're that."