The first round of the NFL postseason begins this weekend with the Wild Card playoffs in the AFC and NFC conferences – but the reigning Super Bowl the champions will not play the match.
The Kansas City Chiefs have clinched the No. 1 seed in the AFC their Christmas victory in 2024 over the Pittsburgh Steelers.
“I thought it was a team performance. The defense stepped up, the offense stepped up (and) everyone left their mark on the game,” the guard Patrick Mahomes he told reporters after the game. “I told my pregnant wife (Brittany Mahomes) I intended to get seed no. 1, so we can have a child.”
The No. 1 seed does not have to play in the Wild Card game. (Which means in the NFC, the Detroit Lions also have an off week.) The other top seven teams in the conference will take the field, while the Chiefs and Lions get what is best described as a hard-earned day off. For Patrick, it’s also when his wife is about to give birth to their third baby.
Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images In a season filled with lucky breaks for the Kansas City Chiefs, running back Patrick Mahomes got another one at home. Mahomes, 29, revealed that his wife, Brittany Mahomes, is due to give birth to the couple’s third baby on Sunday, Jan. 12, during Kansas City’s playoff week. “He told me his (…)
The Chiefs will play the winner of one of the Wild Card games later this month in the divisional round of the playoffs. The division winners eventually face off in an attempt to advance to the conference championship, which of course determines the NFC and AFC teams that will play in the 2025 Super Bowl.
Super Bowl LIX will take place in New Orleans on Sunday, February 9, and the Chiefs are hoping to make history and win a third consecutive Lombardi trophy.
“To win one is extremely difficult, to win two in a row like the Chiefs did – as we know in the history of the sport – almost impossible,” the retired quarterback Tom Brady he said during a Fox Sports broadcast in September 2024. “Three wins in a row? There’s a reason no one has done it. Putting three of those together … with the last draft, a very tough schedule, all the changes in free agency, guys who are still motivated, it’s a big challenge.”
Ryan Kang/Getty Images Pregnant Brittany Mahomes may have skipped husband Patrick Mahomes’ Christmas football game, but she still found a way to praise the NFL quarterback on social media. “He always keeps his promises,” Brittany, 29, wrote via Instagram Stories on Wednesday, Dec. 25, sharing a post from ESPN in which Patrick, (…)
Brady, 47, added: “Fortunately, they have a great coach Andy Reid (who) never looks back. They’re not going to say, ‘Hey, because we were great last year, we’re going to be great this year.’ He holds these guys responsible. But to win everything back is an important task.”
During the final game of the regular season and the head of the divisional round, Reid made the decision to sit a few of the best beginners including Patrick, 29, Travis KelceChris Jones and more. Reserve guard Carson Wentz started a road game against the Denver Broncos on January 5 that ended in a 38–0 rout of the Chiefs, eliminating the Cincinnati Bengals and Miami Dolphins from the playoffs.