Times change, and with them, so do the names who are playing at the highest levels of professional football. And this season, a 14-year streak will be broken in the AFC as a pair of familiar faces will both be missing from the conference’s championship game for the first time since the 2010 season.
On Sunday, the Chiefs were defeated by the Chargers and, in combination with a Buffalo Bills win, were mathematically eliminated from the playoffs for the first time in over a decade. That’s significant here because it means this season, the AFC Championship game will take place without either Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes or former New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady starting. That marks the first time since the 2010 season, when the two starting signal-callers were Ben Roethlisberger and Mark Sanchez.
From the 2011-2017 seasons, Brady started for the Patriots in the AFC Championship game, winning four times to advance to the Super Bowl. In 2018, the Brady-led Patriots would square off with the Chiefs, who were under a first-year starter in Mahomes. The Patriots would go on to win that game 37-31 in overtime, and before winning Super Bowl LII over the Los Angeles Rams. The Patriots would fail to make the AFC Championship game the following season, which would be Brady’s last with the franchise before he finished his career in Tampa Bay over three seasons.
The Chiefs, however, would not miss any more conference championship games for the foreseeable future, and from 2018-2024 made seven consecutive appearances in the AFC Championship, led by Mahomes, winning 5-of-6 from 2019-2024.
But one streak that can continue is the Patriots or Chiefs appearing in every AFC Championship game since the 2020 season, as Drake Maye has the Patriots at 11-3 and in prime position to be one of the top seeds in the AFC playoff bracket this season.
This article originally appeared on Touchdown Wire: Chiefs postseason elimination breaks 14-year old AFC Playoff streak

