Reasons to root for (or against) every team in the NFL’s semifinal weekend

Only four teams remain in the hunt for this year’s Super Bowl title.

For fans of those four squads — the Buffalo Bills, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Philadelphia Eagles and the Washington Commanders — choosing who to root for is easy. But for everyone else, we’re here to help.

The games have everything a viewer could want: storylines, rivalries, veteran stars, transcendent rookies, clashes of style and strategy, and history at stake.

The two conference championship games kick off Sunday. Philadelphia will host Washington at 3 p.m. ET on Fox, followed by the Bills-Chiefs showdown in Kansas City at 6:30 p.m. ET on CBS.

Here’s a reason to root for each team:

One of the game’s best (and most likable) stars has dazzled in Philadelphia

For the first six years of his career, the running back Saquon Barkley toiled away for the hapless New York Giants. The Giants reached the playoffs just once while he was on the team and were never serious contenders. He struggled at times with injuries, including an ACL tear that ended his 2020 season.

His contract was up after last season, and the Giants were skeptical about the value of signing a new, expensive deal. Still, Barkley was a fan favorite, and a team favorite, too, reportedly adored in the locker room. And he wanted to return to New York.

But ultimately the Giants passed on him — and, adding to the pain, their discussions were documented on Hard Knocks, the HBO docuseries produced by NFL Films. Boy, it must be tough for Giants fans to revisit that.

“I’ll have a tough time sleeping if Saquon goes to Philadelphia, I’ll tell you that,” team owner John Mara says in one episode in a conversation with the Giants’ general manager. “He’s the most popular player we have by far.”

Barkley signed with Philly and hasn’t looked back. With the Eagles, he has dazzled. He became only the ninth player in NFL history to break 2,000 rushing yards and might have broken the all-time record had he played in the Eagles’ final game of the regular season. (He sat out to avoid the risk of injury ahead of the playoffs.) And some of his plays — like this, and this — will be in NFL highlight reels for years to come.

It’s hard to believe that all it took was a change of scenery to uncork this version of Barkley. “If you don’t have a great team, it won’t matter. You won’t be successful. And I think I’m a prime example of that right now,” he acknowledged Wednesday. Now we’re one win away from seeing one of the game’s best players on the game’s biggest stage.

Can Washington’s rookie quarterback become the first to lead his team to the Super Bowl? 

The turnaround for the Washington Commanders has been nothing short of a miracle.

For decades, when the team was led by its former owner Daniel Snyder, Washington was a font of controversy and scandal. From the team name, to allegations of widespread sexual harassment among team cheerleaders and other employees, to federal inquiries over team finances, the flood of bad news never seemed to stop. (The deluge even became literal in 2021 when a pipe burst at the stadium, dumping dirty water on fans during a game.)

To boot, the team stunk. Washington lost nearly 60% of games between 1993 and 2023 and won a measly two playoff games in those three decades. Last season, this team went 4-13, the second worst in the NFL.

Now, they’re 12-5 and one win away from a Super Bowl. How did it all change so fast?

A new owner, a new general manager and a new head coach have all helped. But the real difference-maker has been the team’s rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels.

Before Daniels, 24, was chosen second in last year’s NFL draft, there were plenty of debates and concerns about him: Was he too quick to scramble and too susceptible to sacks? Would his slender frame be too fragile for NFL defenders? Was his best year at LSU a one-off, or could he keep it up?

Practically all of those concerns have now vanished. Daniels has been stellar, even more so in the playoffs. When all is said and done, his season might be looked at as the best by a rookie quarterback.

One final milestone would cement that legacy: becoming the first rookie quarterback to start in the Super Bowl.

The Kansas City Chiefs have their eye on making history 

A three-peat has happened in just about every other major U.S. sport — besides the NFL.

Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls won the NBA Finals three times in a row twice in the 1990s, then Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers did it again just a few years later. In baseball, there have been four three-peats, most recently when the New York Yankees won three World Series in a row from 1998 through 2000. In the NHL, three different teams have claimed the Stanley Cup in three straight seasons. College basketball, book it (UCLA, 7 titles in a row).

But the three-peat has proved elusive in professional football for all kinds of reasons: Key players get injured. Coaches get poached. Year to year, it’s impossible to keep a 53-man roster intact.

Yet the Kansas City Chiefs are two wins away from making history. Led by quarterback Patrick Mahomes, the Chiefs have had their eye on this goal all season long. They don’t look as dominant as they have in previous years — achieving their 15-2 record this season took a combination of highly improbable plays, their opponents self-destructing, the occasional well-timed penalty, sheer luck, perhaps even some dark magic — but they still look pretty dang good.

At 29 years old, Mahomes’ resume already has more bullet points than almost any other quarterback in NFL history — three Super Bowl rings, two MVP awards, three All-Pro nods, six Pro Bowls — and he could still have another decade left to play. “I just like winning. If you win a lot and that causes you to be a villain, I’m okay with it,” Mahomes said ahead of last year’s Super Bowl.

Look, I get it if rooting for Goliath gives you the ick. But it’s not every year you get a chance to watch history made, thanks to an all-time great in the peak of their powers. And some people like to root for the bad guys.

Can one of the most luckless franchises in the NFL finally win its first ring? 

Forget winning three Super Bowls in a row. What about losing four?

It’s not the kind of thing a team likes to be famous for, but the Buffalo Bills don’t have much choice. From 1990 to 1993, Buffalo was one of the best teams in the league, consistently atop the AFC standings and a force in the playoffs. Each year, they swept their way to the Super Bowl — and each year, they lost.

Afterward, the Bills quietly receded from playoff contention and spent years in the football wilderness with 10 different head coaches and 20 starting quarterbacks.

Then came Josh Allen. For the past five seasons, the 2018 first-round draft pick has breathed new life into this franchise and its enthusiastic, table-crushing fanbase. The Bills have won the division every year since 2020, looking like serious contenders most of the way.

Now, Allen is playing the best football of his career. He posted career lows in interceptions (6) and sacks (14) during the regular season. The Bills’ resurgent running game has also allowed Allen to play safer, more deliberative football this year, rather than relying on Allen for heroics.

Despite all this, they’ve been kept from a Super Bowl largely due to one team: the Kansas City Chiefs.

For three of the past four years, the Bills’ playoff runs have ended at the hands of the Chiefs. Their postseason tangles have nearly all been thrillers, none more so than the 2021 AFC Divisional Round matchup in which the lead changed four times in the final two minutes of regulation.

The Bills consistently beat the Chiefs in the regular season, including this past November by a score of 30 to 21. But the Chiefs have gotten them three times running — and the idea of losing four in a row (again) is too painful to contemplate.