January 1, 1967, in Buffalo, New York, the Bills came into the AFL Championship game against the Kansas City Chiefs. The Bills were coming off of their second consecutive AFL Championship coming into the game against the Chiefs. The game was close to start, it would stay was only tied at seven at the end of the first quarter until the Chiefs would start to pull away in the second quarter. There would be no scoring in the third quarter, but the Bills were unable get any momentum and put together any meaningful offense to mount a comeback. Kansas City would ice the game for good in the fourth quarter, closing out the scoring and winning the game 31-7.
If the Bills had won the AFL Championship Game, they would have faced the NFL Champion Green Bay Packers in Super Bowl I. The legendary Vince Lombardi coached the Packers, and they also had the legend, Bart Starr, at quarterback. The Packers had the great Ray Nitschke on defense at linebacker and Jim Taylor at fullback.
The 1966 Bills won the AFL Eastern Division with a 9-4-1 record and were coached by Joe Collier. Jack Kemp led the Bills at quarterback, Mike Stratton and Marty Schottenheimer at linebacker, and Billy Shaw at offensive guard. The two teams connected with one player in defensive back, Charley Warner. Kansas City drafted Warner in 1963 out of Prairie View A&M and played for the Chiefs for two seasons. Warner would join the Bills in 1964 and would finish out his career in Buffalo in 1966. Warner would help the Bills achieve a league-leading 37 interceptions.
These two teams have a long, storied, history together, which included last season’s AFC Championship. Even though the Bills lost the game, it would set up a revenge game for the Bills this past October, a 38-20 win. The Bills lost to the Chiefs twice last year, and they beat them back in October, let’s hope Buffalo follows the same pattern as Kansas City did last year except get beat in the Super Bowl if they get there. Personally, I am pretty confident that the Bills will win the AFC Divisional Playoffs on Sunday and advance to the AFC Championship game against either the Tennessee Titans or back at home against the Cincinnati Bengals.
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