They left this place a fundamentally different team than they arrived. They left this place toward a fundamentally different season than the one anyone expected.
The Chiefs did what nobody had done before, and what nobody expected them to do. They beat the Patriots, the dynastic Patriots, ending talk of 16-0 before it even reached 1-0.
For long enough that by now it feels like forever, it has been understood by the Chiefs and everyone else that the only realistic chance to represent the AFC in the Super Bowl is with home-field advantage.
The Patriots are 17-3 in home playoff games with Tom Brady, and 3-3 on the road.