You are either a fan that sees the NFL season as one of the annual highlights of the sporting year, or you look on mystified as people get so excited about a game that you barely understand.
We are firmly in the former camp and are working away bleary-eyed this morning having stayed up to watch what will go down as one of the most thrilling and most brilliantly executed finish to a knock out game in any sport, in any season.
Each of the three underdogs had caused upsets in the opening games of the Divisional Round of this year’s postseason. The Cincinnati Bengals overcame over three decades of the doldrums to beat the Tennessee Titans. The San Francisco 49’ers brought California brightness to snowbound Green Bay and the LA Rams managed somehow to stop another potential miracle comeback from Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
So we small but committed band were already dizzy as the clock ticked over to what we always thought would be the highlight of the clash between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Buffalo Bills.
Both sides had smashed scoring records in the previous weekend wins over the New England Patriots and the Pittsburgh Steelers. They had the highest-paid and highest regarded quarterbacks in the League in the shape of Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen. What unfurled over the following three hours and change was a lesson in sporting brilliance.
The final one minute and fifty-four seconds of the game saw a remarkable 25 points scored. In that time frame, the lead changed hands four times. When Buffalo scored the sixth touchdown of the game to go in front there were only thirteen seconds on the clock but somehow, Mahomes got off two passes that brought the Chiefs within range of a field goal to bring the game to Overtime, and Harrison Buttker the kicker nailed it.
That such a game should then hinge on the capricious flight of a tossed coin is somehow both heartbreaking but also appropriate. As the away team Buffalo got to call who would receive the ball first in the extra time that now was to be played. They called tails, it came up heads.
Kansas elected to give it a go knowing that the rules are that if the first team to score in the extra period scores with a touchdown, then that is the game.
That is exactly what they did to break the hearts of Buffalo fans for the second year in a row and march onto to a Conference Final, the equivalent of a Super Bowl semi-final in seven days time against the Bengals.
It will take every minute of those seven days for fans, players and media to come down from the high of one of the greatest games ever.
Seven touchdowns in total, over 700 yards of offence between them, QB ratings of 132 and 123 respectively for two of the most exciting talents in sport and not one turnover, barely one mistake of any description.
If you are lost by the blizzard of numbers and unmoved by the drama, then the sport is not for you and that is fine. Thanks for reading this far.
But if you are treading a little slower than normal this morning, off half your normal sleep last night, then you know what you witnessed. You know this was a game that will be spoken of over generations. You know that in terms of athleticism, speed of thought and movement, power and precision, this was perhaps as close to sporting perfection as you are ever likely to see.
It really was that good.
