Here we are once again for the 55th time: Super Bowl week. It seems like just yesterday we were watching the Texans and Chiefs play Thursday night football for the first game of the year back in September. Now, it is the beginning of February, and the Chiefs are back in the Super Bowl for the second year in a row, and the Buccaneers, led by Tom Brady, are heading home to Tampa to play for Brady’s seventh ring. It’s been a wild journey and both of these teams have gone through a lot to get to where they are today.

The Chiefs had another great season after last year’s Super Bowl victory, finishing 14-2 winning the AFC West and securing a first round bye in the playoffs. Mahomes put up MVP numbers once again and Kelce led the league in receiving yards for TE’s. Not to mention the great wide receivers of Kansas City such as Tyreek Hill, Mecole Hardman, and Sammy Watkins. The defense was also slept on a lot this year, and put up some overall great numbers. With a great offense and solid defense the Chiefs were a very hard team to beat this year and their record shows. In the divisional round of the playoffs the Chiefs would defeat the Cleveland Browns 22-17. 

This was a gritty matchup and the Browns were coming hot off of a 48-37 win over their division rival Pittsburgh Steelers. The Browns were in their first postseason since 2002 and really had nothing to lose but Kansas City still played a great game and held on to beat them. In the AFC conference championship, the Chiefs were set to play the Bills who were arguably the hottest team in the NFL. They finished 13-3 and were coming off a good defensive showing against the Baltimore Ravens where they won 17-3. Josh Allen and Stefon Diggs were playing next level and were probably the best quarterback receiver connection throughout the year. A lot of people saw this being a Bills win but the Chiefs played a dominant game winning 38-24. Now Kansas City returns to the Super Bowl looking to go back-to-back and I think they’ve got a great chance to do so.

The Buccaneers were one of the most talked about teams during the offseason after bringing in Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski and drafting great players in right tackle Tristain Wirfs and Safety Antoine Winfield. The Bucs led up to the hype finishing 11-5 and securing a 5th seed in the playoffs. They would play the 4th seed Washington Football Team in the Wild Card and while it was close they would still come away with the victory 31-23. In the Divisional round they played the division rival New Orleans Saints and the defense showed up. Forcing 4 turnovers in the game and only allowing 20 points the Bucs came away with a win in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. Now on to the NFC conference championship where they would play the one seed Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field. The “frozen tundra” has been said to be one of the hardest places to play in football, and with 8,500 fans in attendance it was going to be a real challenge for Brady and the Bucs. In an all around good game by both teams the Bucs would come out on top winning 31-26. Now the Buccaneers get to go home to Tampa Bay and play in Raymond James Stadium for the Super Bowl. This will be the first time in NFL history that a Super Bowl team will play at their home stadium, which is crazy. 

This should be a game for the record as the old veteran Brady plays the new star quarterback in the league Patrick Mahomes. Brady is hunting for his 7th ring at 43, while Mahomes will be looking to repeat for his second ring, only at age 25. I think I speak for all NFL fans when I say, this should be one the best Super Bowls of all time.