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Parity is one of the NFL’s biggest selling points, but the Chiefs are starting to become the counterpoint to that claim.
Kansas City will play its seventh consecutive AFC championship game Sunday as Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs chase the first three-peat in the Super Bowl era. The path this year has been eerily similar to their recent playoff runs, including a battle with Josh Allen and the Bills.
Buffalo will face the Chiefs in the postseason for the fourth time in five years. It has served as one of Kansas City’s biggest foils, despite being 0–3 against the Chiefs in the postseason with Allen under center. But the last two games were decided by one score—including the controversial overtime game in the AFC divisional round in 2022 that influenced a change to the overtime rules in the playoffs.
Despite the ostensibly rinse-and-repeat scenario, the NFL is likely not complaining about this matchup. A battle between the Chiefs—the league’s best viewership draw this year—and their playoff rival all but guarantees massive ratings.
Playoff Pull
Here are the viewership numbers from their last three postseason battles:
- 2024: 50.4 million (most-watched AFC divisional-round game)
- 2022: 42.7 million (highest in five years for AFC divisional-round game, per Sports Media Watch)
- 2021: 42.3 million (AFC title game)
The AFC championship game in 2021 was the lone matchup that didn’t provide huge viewership numbers, especially considering it was deeper into the postseason than their last two games. But it was also their first duel in this era—so the rivalry had yet to be solidified—and the Chiefs won by 14 points.
The two teams met in the regular season on Nov. 17—the Chiefs’ only loss this year with Mahomes as a starter—and the game drew 31.1 million viewers. That was the most-watched regular-season game of the year, excluding Thanksgiving.
Questioning the Refs
A battle with the Bills isn’t the only thing about this Chiefs run that mirrors past years.
Opposing players have questioned whether the referees have given favorable calls to the Chiefs, and it continued after Kansas City’s divisional-round win over the Texans. Mahomes drew two penalty calls on drives in the first and third quarters that led to points.
“We knew it was going to be us versus the refs going into this game,” Texans defensive end Will Anderson Jr. said after the game.
Ravens cornerback Marlon Humphrey, whose team was eliminated by the Bills on Sunday, also expressed his disdain for Kansas City on social media.
“I have no reason of saying this other than being a hater. The Bills or whatever NFC team gotta beat the Chiefs. We can’t let them keep getting away with this,” Humphrey tweeted Tuesday.
And it’s not only the players. NFL game analyst Troy Aikman, who called the Texans-Chiefs game for ESPN, called out the refs—and for the league to take action. “I could not disagree with that one more. He barely gets hit,” Aikman said. “They’ve got to address that in the offseason.”
