KANSAS CITY — As soon as once more, Jim Nantz has a front-row seat to historical past.
The legendary CBS play-by-play announcer will name Sunday’s AFC championship sport between the Buffalo Payments and Kansas Metropolis Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium.
The sport marks the ninth assembly between quarterbacks Patrick Mahomes of the Chiefs and Josh Allen of the Payments, and Nantz and Tony Romo have known as all however two of these. That is the fourth time these famous person gamers have met within the postseason, all on CBS, with Mahomes holding a 3-0 benefit.
The matchup is laced with nostalgia, particularly for Nantz, seeing as he was a continuing in these mesmerizing showdowns between Tom Brady and Peyton Manning for thus a few years. The league distributes video games a bit in a different way now, however for years CBS was the community for AFC video games.
“I never thought I’d see another one like that,” Nantz mentioned. “I thought I’d just hit magic that it was in our conference. If this had happened over on the NFC side of the world, I’d get one or two swings at the plate if I’m lucky. And I wouldn’t see the individual matchup between the two of them, that would belong to Fox.
“So I struck twice. It was blind luck. I walked into Brady-Manning and Mahomes-Allen back-to-back. One folded into the next, and there wasn’t an empty space for a year at all. It just instantly developed.”
However the Corridor of Fame broadcaster is fast to level on the market’s a caveat. Whereas Mahomes has cemented his spot in league historical past as a three-time Tremendous Bowl winner, Allen continues to be ready to get to his first. So don’t be too fast to dub this Brady-Manning 2.0.
Kansas Metropolis Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, left, and Buffalo Payments quarterback Josh Allen.
(David Dermer, Jeffrey T. Barnes / Related Press)
“On the AFC side, you’ve got this guy in Cincinnati in Joe Burrow who played in two straight AFC championship games and won at Arrowhead,” he mentioned. “So be careful. He wants it to be Mahomes-Burrow, and he’s building a pretty compelling case.
“Then you’ve got Lamar Jackson in Baltimore, and we know what’s happened as far as shortcomings in the postseason, but he’s a sensational player.
“Those four names — Mahomes and Allen, Burrow and Jackson, they’re not at the midway point of their careers. So you hate to say, boom, this is Manning and Brady. Because one of those other quarterbacks could be a part of it.”
What we do know is Nantz has grow to be shut buddies with Brady and Manning, and now Mahomes and Allen. He performs golf with all of them, they usually have all been to the yard of his house in Pebble Seaside the place he has a scaled-down reproduction of the famed par-three seventh gap on the world-famous course subsequent door.
In truth, it was in Nantz’s yard that Manning shot his “Peyton’s Places” episode with Brady.
“Peyton called me and said this is going to be the most important one I do,” Nantz recalled. “It’s with my rival and I want to do it on the tee in your backyard. I said, `Have at it. I would be honored.’”
Nantz now lives many of the yr at his house in Nashville, Tenn., which is way more handy for masking NFL video games. He has a duplicate gap in that yard too. It’s a rendition of the thirteenth inexperienced at Augusta Nationwide, and also you’re hitting your method. Allen stopped by final summer time and tried mightily to be the primary identify on the “rock of fame,” the place Nantz memorializes buddies who ace the opening. It didn’t occur.
“He was out there for a long while,” Nantz mentioned. “You get unlimited attempts until you either get so frustrated you give up, or you get bored.”
Not solely is Nantz buddies with the 4 quarterbacks, he has grow to be buddies with their mother and father and households as effectively.
“There might be some people who say, `Isn’t that blurring the lines? How does that work?’” he mentioned. “But sometimes you can’t help it. Life takes its course.”
Now, a brand new course is being charted.
For Nantz, the respect stays the identical.
“All four of them have shouldered so much in terms of expectations, representing a franchise,” he mentioned. “Being the face of a franchise. Being a leader in their communities. And all four are exceptional.”
