The NFL playoffs are always a very exciting time of the year for football fans. The top 14 teams in the NFL compete for the coveted Lombardi Trophy that is awarded to the Super Bowl champs year after year. This year has some very big storylines throughout the league.

One of these storylines is the 49er’s quarterback, Brock Purdy. Brock Purdy was the literal last pick in the 2022 NFL Draft. Coming into this season he was the 3rd string quarterback for San Francisco. But when Trey Lance suffered an ankle injury and Jimmy Garoppolo suffered a foot injury, Brock Purdy took the reins. His first career start came against Tom Brady and the Buccaneers. And when the 49er’s beat the Bucs 35-7, Purdy became the only quarterback ever to beat Tom Brady in their first career start. Since then, there has been no looking back for Purdy. He is now 7-0 and has San Francisco one win away from the Super Bowl. This would truly be one of the greatest “zero to hero” stories ever if Brock Purdy were able to lead his team to a championship.

Another big storyline is Damar Hamlin and the Buffalo Bills. During the week 15 match up against the Cincinnati Bengals, Damar Hamlin, a safety for the Bills, collapsed on the field and had to be resuscitated using CPR by members of the teams’ medical staff. It was later released that Damar suffered a cardiac arrest after he suffered a hit to the chest. This event shook the entire NFL community and many people showed their support for Damar by donating to his charity. He was having a toy drive fundraiser that suddenly blew up after his incident on the field. After that game, the fundraiser received over 8.6 million dollars in donations. Another way that teams around the league showed their support for Damar was by outlining his jersey number, 3, on the 30 yard lines of their fields the following week. During their next game, the Bills returned the opening kickoff of the game for a touchdown. This was very significant because the last time that an opening kickoff had been returned for a touchdown was exactly 3 years and 3 months prior to this. This was a very emotional moment for the entire Bills organization. In a post-game interview, Josh Allen, the quarterback for the Bills, had a hard time keeping his emotions at bay while he described the play. After all of this, the Buffalo Bills were obviously very motivated to make a run in the playoffs and hopefully win the Super Bowl. Unfortunately for them, though, Joe Burrow and the Bengals defeated them 27-10 in the second round.

There are only 4 teams left competing for the championship. Those teams are the Bengals, Chiefs, Eagles, and 49er’s. The Bengals and Chiefs will compete in the AFC championship game on Sunday January 29th. The Eagles and the 49er’s will compete in the NFC championship game on the same day. The winners of these two games will face off against each other in the Super Bowl.