When Green Bay and Kansas City last met for a championship, the championship wasn’t even called the “Super Bowl” yet. Lamar Hunt, the owner of the Kansas City Chiefs, suggested at a meeting in the summer of 1966 that the AFL-NFL World Championship Game, the game’s official title, should instead be the Super Bowl, but the title was not officially used until the fourth championship game between the winners of the two leagues. Hunt said that he got the idea from the “Super Ball,” that extremely bouncy rubber ball. Green Bay had beaten Dallas in the “Ice Bowl” to advance to the title game; tickets started at just $12 for that game, which was played at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Kansas City beat Buffalo, 31-7, in the AFL Championship, and when the teams met, Green Bay was heavily favored and won, 35-10, scoring 21 points in the third quarter to pull away. Will these two teams meet again, 54 years later?
Take a look at our thoughts on this possibility as you consider your sports betting on the NFL playoffs.
NFL News: Will Kansas City and Green Bay Play in Super Bowl LV?
The two teams are the top favorites to advance to the Super Bowl, not least because they got byes through the first round. Between 1990 and today, #1 seeds have made the Super Bowl 31 times, 14 times from the AFC and 17 from the NFC. So that means 31 of 60 top seeds, or 52 percent. Last year, of course, both of the top seeds made it into the playoffs, as Kansas City and San Francisco both advanced. This year marked a shift from a 12-team postseason to a 14-team postseason, which meant that only the #1 seed in each conference gets a bye through the first round, so it makes sense that their odds would increase.
Kansas City faces Cleveland in the divisional round of the playoffs and then, should they win, would see the winner of Buffalo and Baltimore in the AFC Championship. Cleveland is a bizarre team in terms of consistency; this is the team that broke the 30-point barrier in the first half of wins against Dallas and Tennessee during the regular season, only to have to hold on for survival as the offense cooled off and the defense had to white-knuckle the rest of the way. Kansas City has a penchant for starting slowly, while Cleveland (when they’re on) has a tendency to stack points up in a hurry. In their win over Pittsburgh, the Browns set an NFL playoff record for points in a quarter with 28. There were times when the Steelers’ defense, in the first half, simply looked lost and overwhelmed by the Browns’ attack. Kansas City should win, but then we thought the same thing about Pittsburgh, and the Chiefs’ defense is not as good as the Steelers’.
A matchup of the winner between Buffalo and Baltimore would give the Chiefs a choice between a team that is just as good on offense, in the Bills, and a team that is running on adrenaline in terms of motivation and physicality, in the Ravens. I would say that, right now, Kansas City faces a much tougher road to the title game than Green Bay does.
The Packers host the Rams in their divisional round game. The Rams are not likely to have Aaron Donald and Jared Goff at full strength. Donald hurt his ribs in the win over Seattle, and Goff has three pins in his throwing thumb. The cold weather will affect both of those players’ ability to play at 100 percent. The weekend forecast for Lambeau Field right now is partly cloudy on Saturday — with a high of 32. However, snow is in the forecast for Thursday and Friday and could linger to the next day.
If Green Bay can negotiate the tough Rams’ defense and win, they would see the winner of New Orleans-Tampa Bay. I don’t pick warm-weather teams to win in freezing temperatures, especially when they have to face Aaron Rodgers. So the Packers have a nice skate to the title game — will the Chiefs meet them there? My money right now is on the Bills, but any of those three teams could easily be there against the Packers.
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