KANSAS CITY, Mo. (WDAF) — When the Kansas City Chiefs and Baltimore Ravens play this Sunday in the AFC Championship, it will not be the first time the two cities’ sports teams have met with a trip to the world championship on the line.
The 2014 American League Championship Series featured the Kansas City Royals and the Baltimore Orioles.
“It was just electric,” said Royals season ticket-holder Kathy Benson. “I think we were counted out as the Royals, we were not expected to be that in 2014,” she said.
Cody Tapp was covering the Royals for 610 Sports Radio at that time. “To head to the ALCS was this huge deal, they hadn’t been since I was a baby in the ’80s,” he said.
Brett Benson, Kathy’s husband, remembers the feeling leading up to that playoff run.
“You felt the momentum of the season but at the same time you still had that doubt in your head until the wild card game and then it started to kind of click,” he said.
Even though Kansas City and Baltimore are almost 10 years removed from that series and are playing a different sport, Cody said that the feeling of the two matchups is similar.
“There’s way more pressure on them to win this game than the Chiefs. Somehow even though the Chiefs are defending Super Bowl champs, there’s more pressure on Lamar. It’s nice to be the team that doesn’t have that much pressure,” he said.
Kathy said she feels the same thing.
“This team is special because they counted us out just like they did the Royals. We have something to prove. Patrick [Mahomes] has something to prove,” she said.
