All logic favors the Saints and Chiefs advancing to the Super Bowl. The NFC and AFC championship games Sunday are both rematches from the regular season that the home teams should win, one indoor at the climate-controlled Super Dome in New Orleans and the other in the Arctic blast of zero-degree windchill outside at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City.
The Los Angeles Rams have already lost to the Saints in New Orleans, 45-35, in a game the home team led 35-17 at halftime. It was a quarterback battle between grizzled veteran Drew Brees and up-and-comer Jared Goff, whose numbers were almost equal that early November day.
Since then, when the Saints moved to 7-1 on the way to an 11-1 start, New Orleans hasn’t been quite as dominating but clinched the NFC South before the last game, a ho-hum loss to the Panthers that Brees sat out. And in the divisional playoff round, the Saints trailed the Eagles 14-0 before rallying for the 20-14 win.
The Rams went 5-2 over their last six games to capture the No. 2 seed in the NFC and were even less-potent down the stretch of the regular season, and their 30-22 win over the Cowboys in the first game of the playoffs was hardly a blowout.
In the AFC, the top-seeded Chiefs and Patriots played a Sunday night 43-40 thriller on October 15 in New England, won by the home team on a field goal as time expired. Tom Brady is even older than Brees and Patrick Mahomes younger than Goff in this other battle of generational QBs. The freezing weather should not be a factor for either team, since both have to try to play in it.
The last time Brady played in KC, he was benched in the fourth quarter of a rout by the Chiefs that was supposed to be the beginning of the end for Tom Terrific. But, since then, he has reached three Super Bowls, winning two of them. And in an ironic twist of strategies, the Patriots will try to hold the ball on sustained drives to keep the athletic Mahomes off the frozen tundra.
Will it be the two youngsters advancing to the Super Bowl in Atlanta or the two golden oldies? I say one of each, but maybe not the ones you, and the oddsmakers, like.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe:
Related Stories
‹
![]()
Celebrating Culture, Free Speech Amid Criticism of Super Bowl Halftime and Olympics — Stroman On Sports (Feb. 13, 2026)Deborah Stroman discusses the controversy around political statements and cultural highlights made at both the Olympics and Super Bowl.

The Game. The Ads. The Music. The Puppies. Here’s Why Millions Are Excited for Super Bowl SundayEven if it’s not the game itself, millions of Americans will find something to be excited about when it comes to Super Bowl Sunday — and that’s before even factoring in the influence of Taylor Swift. Four in 10 U.S. adults are extremely or very excited for at least one part of the Super Bowl day’s festivities — […]

Holding Court: Much-Debated ‘Taylor Swift Factor’ Exposes Angry, Clueless NFL CriticsWhether you love Taylor Swift, hate Taylor Swift, love the NFL or hate the NFL, the following facts still apply, whether you or Dungy or anyone else likes them. Real-world facts and hard evidence tend to be very stubborn that way.

UNC and WCHL Alumnus Mick Mixon Looks Back on Super Bowl MemoriesAhead of Super Bowl Sunday, Mick Mixon, former radio voice of the Carolina Panthers and an alumnus of both UNC and WCHL, took some time this week to chat with Chapelboro’s Michael Koh about his memories of calling Super Bowl 50 between the Panthers and Denver Broncos in 2016. The Panthers lost the game 24-10, […]

Chansky's Notebook: Super Bowl DreamsArt Chansky’s Sports Notebook is presented by The Casual Pint. YOUR place for delicious pub food paired with local beer. Choose among 35 rotating taps and 200+ beers in the cooler. Who do I like in the Super Bowl? Neither, literally. Maybe this game will get great ratings in Missouri, Kansas and Pennsylvania, but I […]
![]()
Super Bowl 56 Recap: Top Moments From Cooper Kupp to EminemWritten by THE ASSOCIATED PRESS From a thrilling late touchdown drive that gave the Rams a 23-20 win over the Bengals, to Eminem taking a knee and Meadow Soprano driving an electric Chevy, here are the highlights from Sunday’s Super Bowl 56. HOW THE RAMS WON THE SUPER BOWL Down 20-16, the Rams went on a […]
![]()
Stroman on Sports: Super Bowl Predictions + The Harden-Simmons TradeDr. Debbie Stroman speaks with 97.9 The Hill's Brighton McConnell on Friday, February 11 about this weekend's Super Bowl and the blockbuster move of the NBA Trade Deadline.
![]()
Chansky's Notebook: Love 'Em Or Hate 'EmThe Patriots could be 8-0 or 0-8 in the Tom Brady Super Bowl era. There have been polarizing sports team in history: the old Boston Celtics and New York Yankees, the Dallas Cowboys and Duke Blue Devils. But nothing like the New England Patriots. However, while going to three straight Super Bowls — four of […]

Chansky's Notebook: Stop The Freaking Game!It is ludicrous the NFL can’t prevent what happened to the Saints. The National Football League is the richest professional sports enterprise in the U.S. if not the world. Millions upon millions are spent watching, attending, advertising and betting on games every season. But this billion-dollar business is still bush league. It is controlled by […]

Chansky's Notebook: Generational QuarterbacksAll logic favors the Saints and Chiefs advancing to the Super Bowl. The NFC and AFC championship games Sunday are both rematches from the regular season that the home teams should win, one indoor at the climate-controlled Super Dome in New Orleans and the other in the Arctic blast of zero-degree windchill outside at Arrowhead Stadium […]
›