Here's a stat that should make every other AFC team absolutely sick.
In January 2011, the Pittsburgh Steelers played the New York Jets in the AFC Championship Game. It was a great game. The Steelers won. Ben Roethlisberger was still in his prime. Rex Ryan was still talking trash in New York.
And that game - that 2011 AFC Championship - is the most recent one that didn't feature either the Kansas City Chiefs or the New England Patriots.
Let me say that again for the people in the back: 15 straight AFC Championship games have had either Kansas City or New England competing in them.
The Patriots made nine appearances. The Chiefs have made seven. They played each other once.
Fifteen years. Two franchises. Complete and total conference dominance.
Folks, this is unprecedented. This doesn't happen in professional sports. Leagues are designed for parity. Salary caps exist specifically to prevent dynasties. Free agency is supposed to spread talent around. The draft is structured to help bad teams get better.
And yet, for a decade and a half, two teams have basically owned the AFC.
First it was Tom Brady and the Patriots. From 2011 to 2019, New England went to eight consecutive AFC Championship games. Eight in a row. They won five of them. They made it to four Super Bowls during that stretch and won three.
Brady and Bill Belichick turned the AFC into their personal playground. Every January, you knew where you'd find the Patriots - in the final four, usually hosting at Gillette Stadium, usually favored to win.
It was suffocating. It was relentless. It was, if we're being honest, kind of boring in its predictability.
But it was also greatness. You don't accidentally make eight straight conference championship games. You don't stumble into that level of sustained excellence. The Patriots were the best-run organization in football, with the greatest quarterback ever, and they dominated.
And then Brady left. Belichick stayed, tried to keep it going, and eventually the dynasty crumbled. The Patriots became mortal again.
But the AFC didn't get liberated. It just got a new overlord.
Enter Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs.
Since 2018, the Chiefs have been to seven AFC Championship games. They've won the conference six times. They've won the Super Bowl four times in that span, including back-to-back titles.
Mahomes is doing things we've never seen before. He's matching Brady's championship pace. He's got the arm talent Brady never had. He's got the mobility, the improvisational genius, the clutch gene that makes you believe he's never actually out of a game.
The torch didn't just get passed from the Patriots to the Chiefs. It got seized. Mahomes beat Brady in the playoffs, then took over the conference and hasn't let go.
And here's the truly crazy part: there's no end in sight. Mahomes is 30 years old. If he stays healthy, he could play another decade at a high level. The Chiefs are built for sustained success - great coaching with Andy Reid, a strong front office, a winning culture.
They could own the AFC for another five to ten years.
Think about what that means for everyone else. The Buffalo Bills have built a championship-caliber roster around Josh Allen and still can't get past Kansas City. The Baltimore Ravens have won MVP awards with Lamar Jackson and can't break through. The Cincinnati Bengals drafted Joe Burrow and made it to a Super Bowl, but they still have to go through the Chiefs to get there.
Every contender in the AFC is playing for second place. Every season, no matter what happens in the regular season, everyone knows the favorite in the conference. It's been that way since Brady arrived in New England, and it continues with Mahomes in Kansas City.
Fifteen years. Fifteen consecutive AFC Championships with either the Patriots or Chiefs playing for the conference title.
That's not a dynasty. That's not even two dynasties.
That's a stranglehold. That's two franchises taking turns suffocating an entire conference.
And you know what? As much as it probably kills fans of the other 14 AFC teams, we should appreciate what we're witnessing. This kind of dominance doesn't happen often. We're living through an era that people will talk about for decades.
Kids growing up right now think this is normal. They think the Chiefs are just supposed to be in the AFC Championship every year. They don't remember a time when the Patriots weren't automatic playoff locks.
But it's not normal. It's extraordinary.
One day, it'll end. Mahomes will get older. The Chiefs will have a down year. Someone else will rise up and claim the AFC.
But until that day comes, this is the reality: if you want to win the AFC, you have to go through Kansas City.
Just like you had to go through New England for a decade before that.
Fifteen years. Two teams. Complete domination.
That's what sports is all about, folks. Sustained excellence. Dynasty after dynasty. And everyone else fighting for scraps.
