Split image showing Tracy Wolfson interviewing Josh Allen on the left and Patrick Mahomes on the right. Credit: Jay Biggerstaff-USA TODAY Sports (left); CBS (right). Edit by Liam McGuire, Comeback Media.
By Sam Neumann on

For the eighth time since 2020, Tracy Wolfson will be on the sideline when Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen meet. She’s seen this rivalry develop from its earliest chapters into what Jim Nantz has called the modern-day version of Brady-Manning.

The NFL on CBS’s lead sideline reporter has watched the Bills dominate the regular season series 4-1, while the Chiefs have ended Buffalo’s season in all four playoff meetings. She’s been there for the heartbreak and the jubilation, for the record-breaking ratings and the postgame emotions. But this Sunday’s matchup in Buffalo carries a weight she hasn’t felt in this rivalry before.

“This is an interesting one. Neither one is leading their division, first time since they’ve faced each other, I think,” Wolfson told Awful Announcing. “To me, there’s a lot more on the line in this regular season game, where every year they go into this regular season game and the Chiefs are like, ‘Okay, we lost, but we’ll win in the postseason.’ It just seems to be one loses and the other one wins in the postseason. I think, this year, there’s a lot more on the line with both of them in terms of where they are and in terms of where other teams are ahead of them.”

For the first time in this rivalry’s modern era, both teams are chasing rather than being chased. The usual playoff inevitability that’s defined every Chiefs-Bills meeting since 2020 feels less certain heading into Sunday’s 4:25 p.m. kickoff on CBS.

And that’s because the context around this game is fundamentally different than what Wolfson, Nantz, and Tony Romo have seen in their previous seven Chiefs-Bills calls. The pattern has seen the Bills win in November and the Chiefs win when it matters. But that pattern assumed both teams would be playing for seeding rather than survival.

“I don’t know if I feel as confident because of where the standings are,” she said. “I think that’s what’s interesting coming into this game, but certainly there’s a lot at stake whenever they play — and there’s bragging rights,” she said. “I think more so, of course, it’s more on the line in the playoffs when they play in the AFC Championship Game or that Divisional that they played, certainly there’s more on the line there. But no matter what, these guys are two competitors. They want to win and they want to beat each other.”

The CBS A-team has essentially become the official broadcast crew of this rivalry. They’ve called seven straight meetings and all four playoff matchups. The last three alone have produced massive television ratings: the AFC Championship Game (57.7 million), last year’s Week 11 regular-season game (31.2 million, the most-watched regular-season CBS game since 2007 outside of holidays), and the 2024 AFC Divisional playoff (50.4 million, the most-watched divisional game ever). Sunday’s game will air to 100% of the country.

It’s rare for broadcasters to become so intertwined with a specific rivalry, but Wolfson has embraced it. She’s built relationships with both sides over years of coverage, something that became visible last season when cameras caught Josh Allen giving her a big hug before a postgame interview.

“We get attached to these players and these teams,” Wolfson said. “We cover them all the time. I mean, I don’t know how many I’ve covered. Each year, I feel like I’m covering eight Chiefs games and at least six Bills games. Honestly, this week alone, the amount of people that came up to me and asked, ‘Do you have a residency in Kansas City?’ I mean, that’s what it feels like. And so, this is going to be our eighth time calling this matchup. You do start, and you form relationships with these players and coaches.”

She also pushed back against critics who suggested the Allen embrace showed favoritism.

“There was an instance last year where the cameras caught Josh running up and giving me a big hug right before the interview, that’s just what he does,” Wolfson added. “There’s no favoritism here or there. That’s what he does. He was elated and excited. People look at that, especially anti-Bills fans, and are like, ‘That’s not professional.’ Well, it’s hard not to just form friendships and relationships with these players, and it doesn’t mean you’re not going to be impartial.”

After last year’s AFC Championship Game — when the Chiefs escaped with that 32-29 win after Harrison Butker’s field goal with 3:33 left — Wolfson posted on social media about feeling for the Bills. It was an honest moment from someone who has watched this rivalry unfold from field level, seeing both the joy of victory and the agony of another postseason defeat for Buffalo.

“As a reporter, as someone that covers these games — you see both sides of it,” Wolfson explained. “You can relate to that by watching on the field and seeing the reactions of what took place. And I did feel that way last year. It felt like that was the year that this was going to be it. And I think [the Bills] felt that way, too. So, I think it just tugged at my heartstrings and I put it out there.”

That emotional investment comes from covering this rivalry since its inception. Wolfson has a frame of reference for what makes these matchups special because she’s seen the blueprint before. She covered the Manning-Brady rivalry when Peyton was in Denver, and she knows what made that work. She sees the same thing here.

“I think they do,” Wolfson said when asked if Mahomes and Allen view this as the new Brady-Manning. “I think we’ve talked to them about this being the new rivalry. I was around during the Manning-Brady rivalry when Manning was with Denver, more so than with Indianapolis — I didn’t get a chance to cover [Peyton] when he was with the Colts — but I saw it.

“I saw how it evolved. I saw how every game they played against each other was heightened, and the fact that they play in the regular season and always seem to wind up facing each other in the postseason. And they will tell you that. And we talked about this rivalry that they’ve built, and they have the most utmost respect for each other. And it’s fun to be a part of it because you’re witnessing that history repeating itself again.”

Allen is 29, Mahomes is 30. They’ve already faced each other nine times and could realistically meet another 15-20 times over the rest of their careers if both stay healthy and both teams remain competitive. Manning and Brady met 17 times over their careers, with four of those meetings coming in the AFC Championship Game. Mahomes and Allen have already played in four playoff games together.

But for this rivalry to continue the way everyone expects it to, both teams need to climb back into their usual spots atop the conference. That urgency is new. That’s what Wolfson keeps coming back to.

“It’s probably gonna feel more like that once we talk to those teams, hear what they say. When we’re in Buffalo, you get that vibe when you start standing on that field and you get out to the game, on Sunday, you do you feel it,” Wolfson said. “That energy takes another level, and that heightened competition, and knowing that there’s a lot more on the line. I think we’re going to feel it. And I do believe there’s a lot more on the line in this regular season game than there has been in years past.”

Tracy Wolfson has been there for seven of the nine meetings between Mahomes and Allen. She’s watched them forge something that reminds her of the best rivalry she ever covered. And for the first time since this kicked into high gear in 2020, she’s not sure when — or if — they’ll meet again after Sunday.

That’s what makes this one different.

About Sam Neumann

Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.

View all posts by Sam Neumann