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Making your conference championship game is already a tough feat, and making it two years in a row is even more difficult. Now, imagine that you are playing in consecutive conference championships against the exact same team. That is what will happen with the AFC Championship Game on Sunday, January 29.
The Cincinnati Bengals will hit the road to face the Kansas City Chiefs in this year’s AFC Championship Game. These teams played each other in Kansas City last year in a game that went into overtime. The Bengals took the 27-24 win and went on to face the Los Angeles Rams in the Super Bowl.
The last time that two teams faced each other in consecutive AFC Championship Games was in 2011 and 2012. The Baltimore Ravens matched up against the New England Patriots. The Patriots won the game 23-20 in 2011, but the Ravens got their revenge by taking the 28-13 win in 20212.
For the NFC Championship Game, you have to go all the way back to 1992-1994 to find a stretch where the matchup repeated. One of this year’s Divisional round games featured the Dallas Cowboys taking on the San Francisco 49ers. They played each other in the NFC Championship Game three consecutive seasons in the early 90s. Dallas won the first two games, with San Francisco finally overcoming the odds and taking the win in 1994.