Here’s a look at the announcing assignments for the NFL’s 2025 Championship Sunday on Jan. 26, 2025. That includes some discussion of each game based on broadcasters, matchups, or both. All times are Eastern.
NFC Championship Game
Washington Commanders (NFC No. 6 seed, 12-5, 2-0 postseason) at Philadelphia Eagles (NFC No. 2 seed, 14-3, 2-0 postseason)
Fox, Fox Deportes 3 p.m.
Kevin Burkhardt, Tom Brady, Erin Andrews, Tom Rinaldi
Fox Deportes: Adrian Garcia-Márquez, Jaime Motta, Jessi Losada, Rodolfo Landeros
Westwood One Radio: Ian Eagle, Kurt Warner, Ross Tucker
Entravision Spanish Radio: Ricardo Celis, Tony Nuñez
The Commanders are on quite the postseason run, beating the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 23-20 in the Wild Card round and then taking down the top-seeded Detroit Lions 45-31 in the Divisional Round. And that’s remarkable in their first season under the ownership of Josh Harris, which is also the first year with the general manager and coach tandem of Adam Peters and Dan Quinn and quarterback Jayden Daniels’ first season in the NFL. (Per reporting from ESPN’s Seth Wickersham and Don Van Natta Jr. this weekend, this is all infuriating to former Washington owner Dan Snyder.) But can the Commanders keep that going against the six-point favorite Eagles? Washington beat Philadelphia in their last contest in the regular season this year (36-33 on Dec. 22), but lost the previous one (26-18 on Nov. 14), and their win came with some caveats.
For Philadelphia, it’s been a remarkably dramatic season for a team that finished 14-3 and handily won their division. A lot of that has been about debate over the play of quarterback Jalen Hurts, who threw for 2,903 yards and 18 touchdowns against five interceptions with a 68.7 percent completion mark in 15 regular-season games this year, and also rushed 150 times for 630 yards and 14 touchdowns. But he was held to 128 passing yards (with 15 completions on 20 attempts) in last week’s Divisional Round win over the Los Angeles Rams, and while he added 70 rushing yards on seven carries, the Eagles’ main force there was RB (and MVP candidate) Saquon Barkley, who picked up 205 yards and two touchdowns on 26 carries.
Hurts has seen some big praise this year, including MVP lobbying from Cris Collinsworth in November. But he’s also faced major criticism, even from teammate A.J. Brown. And he has dealt with both a concussion and a knee injury late in the year, and is expected to wear a knee brace Sunday. And the last game between these two sides, the Commanders’ 36-33 win in December, came with Hurts missing most of that game with an injury (and with criticism for Fox broadcasters Joe Davis and Greg Olsen for not discussing that enough). What will happen if he’s able to play and be effective throughout?
For Washington, Daniels remains a key part of their story. He threw for 299 yards and two touchdowns in their win over the Lions last week, and he threw for 3,568 yards and 25 touchdowns against nine interceptions with a 69.0 percent completion mark this regular season. And he was key to the Commanders’ win against the Eagles this year. Can he go for a third one?
Unfortunately, with this game being a Fox broadcast rather than an ESPN/ABC one, there won’t be a chance of Hurts trolling Scott Van Pelt after an Eagles’ win. But, depending on the outcome, we could see Hurts, Barkley, or Daniels have a fun “LFG” moment with Brady afterwards following Daniels’ question there last week. Also on the broadcasting side, this is a crucial last opportunity for the Burkhardt-Brady booth (ranked 14th out of 25 booths evaluated by our readers this season) before the even larger Super Bowl stage in two weeks, and it’s a fascinating combination of three other generally-liked figures who don’t always work together (Eagle, Warner, and Tucker) on the English radio side.
AFC Championship Game
Buffalo Bills (AFC No. 2 seed, 13-4, 2-0 postseason) at Kansas City Chiefs (AFC No. 1 seed, 15-2, 1-0 postseason)
CBS, Paramount+ 6:30 p.m.
Jim Nantz, Tony Romo, Evan Washburn, Tracy Wolfson, Jay Feely
Westwood One Radio: Kevin Harlan, Devin McCourty, Derek Rackley
Entravision Spanish Radio: Ricardo Celis, Tony Nuñez
Once again, it’s the Bills and Chiefs. These teams have played each other eight times in the 2020s, with quarterbacks Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes both starting in each of those games, and that series has worked out 4-4 to date. However, Kansas City has won all three of their playoff matchups, in the 2020 season’s AFC Championship Game, and in the Divisional Round of the 2021 and 2023 seasons’ playoffs. But Buffalo won their lone meeting this year 30-21 at home in November. And that game drew an average audience of 31.2 million viewers, so the stage is set for a very big audience number here for CBS.
On the Bills’ side, Allen is the current AP NFL MVP favorite at -250. He was named as one of five finalists (along with Barkley, Joe Burrow, Jared Goff and Lamar Jackson) this week, following a season where he threw for 3,731 yards and 28 touchdowns against six interceptions (with a 63.6 percent completion mark). He also ran for 531 yards and 12 touchdowns this season. But he’s had a mixed playoffs to date from a statistical perspective; he threw for 272 yards and two touchdowns in a Wild Card Round win over the Denver Broncos (with a 76.9 percent completion mark), but only threw for 127 yards in a Divisional Round win over the Ravens last week. (That was with a lot of snow, though, and he completed 72.7 percent of his passes there.)
For the Chiefs, much of the focus will be on Mahomes. Mahomes’ 3,928 passing yards in 16 games this regular season were low by his standards (in each starting season from 2018-2023, he hit the 4,000-yard mark, and twice surpassed 5,000 yards), but he did finish the regular season with 260- and 320-yard passing performances. And while he only threw for 177 yards in their Divisional Round win over the Houston Texans, that was with one touchdown and no interceptions and a 64.0 percent completion mark.
Another key element of conversation with Kansas City is about who’s catching the ball. 35-year-old tight end Travis Kelce is not just one of the most-discussed figures on this team thanks to his record-setting podcast with brother Jason and his relationship with music superstar Taylor Swift, he’s also their leading receiver, posting 97 catches (on 133 targets) for 823 yards and touchdowns this regular season. And he had seven catches on eight targets for 117 yards and a touchdown against Houston. But the Bills will certainly be looking to shut him down; will they be able to do so?
On the broadcasting side, this game is a big deal for CBS given that expected public interest. And it’s notable to see them pulling out the “Doink Cam” from last year’s Super Bowl again for this. In the booth, Nantz and Romo held their No. 6 position from last year in our reader rankings, but jumped up from a 2.82 to a 2.98, almost an A. We’ll see how they do here.
Update: this post initially got the result of the first Eagles-Commanders contest this season wrong. Philadelphia won the Nov. 14 game 26-18.
H/T Sammy for the listings!
