After defeating the Cleveland Browns 22-17 in the AFC’s divisional round of the playoffs, the Kansas City Chiefs have earned the right to host the AFC Championship Game against the Buffalo Bills.
This is now the third consecutive season that Kansas City will host the AFC title game, a historic feat in the AFC conference. Since the 1970 merger, when conference championship games first were played, no team has ever played host to the AFC Championship Game in three consecutive seasons. A few teams have done it twice in a row, but none of them have ever done it three times. Back in 2018, the Chiefs played host to the New England Patriots. Last year, they played host to the Tennessee Titans.
The Chiefs will get a chance to win their second Lamar Hunt Trophy in as many years. It’s perhaps the biggest checkpoint on their journey to repeat as Super Bowl champions. It’s almost equally important to the organization to earn the trophy named after the franchise’s founder and keep the trophy in Kansas City.
The Bills will return to the AFC title game for the first time since the 1993 season. They also faced the Chiefs in that game playing host to Kansas City up in Buffalo. It was a great QB matchup between legends Joe Montana and Jim Kelly, but Montana was knocked out of the game with a concussion in the third quarter. The Chiefs would ultimately lose the game, struggling to defend RB Thurman Thomas, who rushed for nearly 200 yards and three touchdowns. Decades later these two franchises are set for a rematch, but this time it’ll be on the Chiefs’ home turf.
The AFC Championship Game is set to be played next Sunday, Jan. 24 at 5:40 p.m. CT and will be broadcast on CBS.
