Chiefs, 49ers set for Super Bowl rematch

A Super Bowl 54 rematch is set for Super Bowl 58 in Las Vegas. For the second time in four years, the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers have won their respective conferences to meet in the NFL's championship event. The pair of Raiders' archrivals will meet at 6:30 p.m. on Feb. 11 at Allegiant Stadium, to see whom hoists the Lombardi Trophy. "Just to do it with these guys after what we've been through all season long, guys coming together, it really is special," Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes said in a news conference after his team's 17-10 AFC Championship Game victory over the Ravens Sunday afternoon. "I told them, 'The job is not done.' The job is now to prepare ourselves to play a great team in the Super Bowl to try to get that ring." The Chiefs are seeking a third championship ring under Mahomes, a run that started when the two-time regular-season and Super Bowl Most Valuable Player quarterback led a Chiefs' comeback on the 49ers on Feb. 2, 2020 in Miami. Kansas City beat San Francisco 31-20 in that game, but much has changed since that encounter. Not only are the rosters almost completely overhauled aside from a few superstars at the top, but the Chiefs have gone from a favorite in Super Bowl 54 to an underdog in Super Bowl 58. Kansas City closed a 1.5-point favorite in local sports books ahead of the 2020 game and opened as a 2-point underdog at most sports books this year. Numbers began surfacing on local betting boards as the 49ers wrapped up a 34-31 NFC Championship Game victory over the Detroit Lions Sunday evening. San Francisco had to rally back after falling into a 24-7 first-half hole. "I'm just proud to be a 49er," running back Christian McCaffrey said afterwards on television while celebrating underneath a shower of confetti. "We've got one more." Kansas City faced no such deficit, leading from start to finish against Baltimore. The Chiefs scored touchdowns on each of their first two possessions of the game, and then forced two Ravens' turnovers in the end zone in the second half. The Super Bowl will be the third straight game the Chiefs enter as underdogs, as both the Ravens and the Buffalo Bills a week ago were pegged to knock off the defending champions by the betting market. Mahomes said the Chiefs, which never had to play a road playoff game in six seasons with him at quarterback before this season, have been motivated by their newfound doubters after a relatively down regular season. "We always had everything we wanted in front of us," Mahomes said. "We had that mindset. Coach (Andy) Reid preaches that every single day we come into the building. No one hung their head. Everyone was ready to go and now we're going to the Super Bowl. We're not done." The Chiefs have never lost at Allegiant Stadium, winning all four meetings against the Raiders there since the venue opened in 2020. The 49ers played their lone contest at Allegiant a year ago — aside from a preseason game this year — in which they beat the Raiders 37-34 in overtime. That was the latest installment in the "Battle of the Bay," the rivalry between the 49ers and Raiders spanning back decades from their time sharing the Northern California market. The Raiders are the last team to have beaten the Chiefs, shocking the AFC West nemesis near the end of the regular season, but that will be of little solace to local fans of the silver and black. Red will take over Las Vegas next week for all the festivities leading up to the Big Game — two different shades, the same ones that have already clashed on this stage previously. "I never doubted it," Reid said of his team getting back to the Super Bowl. "That's not how we roll."