Under Bill Belichick, the Patriots have done well, pretty much anywhere and everywhere. At Arrowhead Stadium, they’ve generated a 1-2 record.
The most recent visit ended poorly. On that Monday night in September 2014, the Chiefs dismantled the Patriots, 41-14. The experience sparked Belichick’s infamous “on to Cincinnati” press conference, which was followed by a run than took the Patriots from 2-2 to 13-3 to the Super Bowl to their first championship in 10 years.
A reporter asked Belichick on Wednesday whether that experience becomes motivation for the upcoming playoff game in Kansas City.
“Yeah, I don’t think that game has anything to do with this one,” Belichick said. “We’re going to get ready for Sunday.”
He’s right. Although some of the players and coaches are the same, that game happened more than four years ago, and not in a single-elimination setting. These two teams have played only once before in the postseason, and not in Kansas City, where it is scheduled to be cold (but not as cold as it was supposed to be).
“Whatever it is, it is,” Belichick said. “Love to play in a championship game. Schedule it wherever you want. We’ll be there.”
Yes they will. And they quite possibly will advance to the Super Bowl for the ninth time since 2001.