The Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers punched their tickets to Super Bowl LVIII in Las Vegas with wins in the conference championship games on Sunday.
Kansas City upset the top-seeded Baltimore Ravens 17-10 in the AFC Championship Game, earning its fourth Super Bowl berth in the last five years during a season that had more struggles than years past leading up to the playoffs.
“The guys never doubted,” Kansas City head coach Andy Reid told the media postgame. “They put themselves in a position where they had a chance. They took care of that. Great attitude on this team.”
“The best part is we’re not done,” Reid added. “We’ve got another game. You love these seasons to carry on as long as they can possibly carry on, and we’re there. Now, we’ve got to get right back at it and start grinding for whoever wins this game here.”
The winner of the game Reid alluded to was the San Francisco 49ers, who completed a second-half comeback in the NFC Championship Game by outscoring the Detroit Lions 27-7 in the second half to return to the Super Bowl for the first time since the 2019-2020 season after losing in the NFC Championship a year ago.
The 49ers played the Chiefs in the Super Bowl that season and lost 31-20.
“We haven’t gotten to see them much this year just because we haven’t had a lot of crossover tape, but we already have a pretty good idea of how it’s going to look,” San Francisco head coach Kyle Shanahan told the media in a postgame press conference. “They’ve been doing it for a while, and since we met in [20]19, it seems like they’ve been there every year.”
“We’ve been trying really hard to get back to that moment,” Shanahan continued. “We’ve been really close a number of times, and this time we got it done. We get these two weeks to prepare and make sure it’s a hell of a game.”
Kansas City (11-6) and San Francisco (12-5) will now meet in Super Bowl LVIII at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas at 5:30 p.m. CT on Sunday, February 11.