The NFL Playoffs are here. The Chiefs, who have struggled in the past against the AFC, will get the opportunity to slay their current and past playoff demons.
The Chiefs have had an interesting season to this point. With the media ready to pronounce them dead after their record dropped to 3-4 in Week 7, the Chiefs have something to prove to the rest of the NFL. The Chiefs have the chance to not only make their third straight Super Bowl, but also go on an epic revenge tour, starting with the Steelers.
In what seemed very unlikely a week ago, the Chiefs are scheduled to play the Pittsburgh Steelers in Kansas City on Sunday night to open the NFL postseason. This is coming only three weeks after the Chiefs handed it to the Ben Roethlisberger and company in a 36-10 victory in Week 16. This was done without Harrison Butker, Travis Kelce, Nick Bolton, and Lucas Niang playing a snap. Additionally, Tyreek Hill was just taken off of the COVID-19 list and played very few snaps.
With that in mind, the Chiefs are clearly favorites to advance to the divisional round. That doesn’t mean that there isn’t some form of revenge that they can take against the Steelers on Sunday night.
Pittsburgh Steelers
For Chiefs fans, the Steelers were once the “boogie men” of the regular season and the playoffs. Since the Chiefs began to start Patrick Mahomes, this has not been the case, but for the seasoned fan, we can remember a heart-breaking, night playoff game loss once before.
Eric Berry, before the start of that game knelt at the goal line. As Berry stared straight ahead, Chiefs fans were convinced that this was going to be the turnaround that led to a playoff victory. As an attendee of the game, I can remember the crowd losing their minds as they watched in awe. As the Chiefs took the field, one could feel the desire and energy for a playoff victory against the Pittsburgh Steelers. In what ended up an 18-16 loss, the Chiefs drafted Patrick Mahomes the next season.
This is a chance for the Chiefs to send Ben Roethlisberger into retirement with his last game being the most miserable that he has ever played. For some of us, this will be payback for the pain we felt on January 15, 2017. This, however is not the only revenge possibility in the playoffs this season.