Conference Championship Sunday Preview: Rams-Seahawks III meets the rise of the Broncos and Patriots
The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL
The Athletic
4.6 • 3.3K Ratings
🗓️ 23 January 2026
⏱️ 70 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Championship Weekend is upon us. On one side, we get a matchup that feels historically familiar, but no one predicted this year when the Patriots and Broncos meet in Denver. On the other, we get the third installment of Rams-Seahawks, making it arguably the best single-season series in NFL history. Robert Mays, Derrik Klassen and Dave Helman dive deep on both games on this episode of The Athletic Football Show.
Rundown (timestamps are approximate)
3:06 AFC Championship Game preview
36:11 NFC Championship Game preview
Connect with The Athletic Football Show
Please take our listener survey: theathletic.com/survey26
YT: https://www.youtube.com/@TAFootballShow
Podcasts: https://podfollow.com/the-athletic-football-show/view
X: https://x.com/TA_FootballShow
IG: https://www.instagram.com/tafootballshow
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tafootballshow
Discord: http://discord.gg/theathleticfootballshow
Call us: 847-448-0701
Email us: athleticfootballshow@gmail.com
Host: Robert Mays
Co-Hosts: Derrik Klassen and Dave Helman
Executive Producer: Michael Beller
Video Producer: Katy Duffy
Audio Producer: Michael Beller
Social Producer: Scott Krinch
Follow Robert on Bluesky: @robertmays.bsky.social
Follow Derrik on Bluesky: @qbklass.bsky.social
Follow Robert on X: @robertmays
Follow Derrik on X: @QBKlass
Theme song: Haunted
Written by Dylan Slocum, Trevor Dietrich, Ruben Duarte, Kyle McAulay, and Meredith VanWoert / Performed by Spanish Love Songs
Courtesy of Pure Noise / By arrangement with Bank Robber Music, LLC
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the Athletic Football Show. |
| 0:05.7 | I'm Robert Mays. |
| 0:06.7 | Championship Sunday has arrived. |
| 0:10.0 | AFC Championship, NFC Championship, two excellent matchups. |
| 0:14.2 | We started with the AFC Championship, just dug into the path that the Broncos and the Patriots have taken back to this place. |
| 0:20.5 | I was at the 2015 AFC Championship game when the Broncos and the Patriots have taken back to this place. |
| 0:25.2 | I was at the 2015 AFC championship game when the Broncos won. |
| 0:28.0 | That was actually the last time the Super Bowl was in San Francisco. |
| 0:30.6 | And so a lot of weird parallels there. |
| 0:33.9 | It took the Broncos a while to get back to this place. |
| 0:36.0 | But they were firmly back in this spot. |
| 0:41.0 | Patriots, what a terrible three years it was that they had to wait before being a good team again. |
| 0:42.4 | I feel so sorry for their fans. |
| 0:46.4 | That dug into what we're looking for on both sides of the ball, obviously started with what the Broncos offense might look like what Jared Stidham, what they will ask of him |
| 0:50.6 | in a game like this before digging into how the Broncos defense might approach Drake May. |
| 0:56.5 | Then move to the NFC championship game as good as it gets. |
| 0:59.7 | Just truly as good as it gets. |
| 1:01.2 | We talked about some of the historical markers associated with the quality of these teams. |
| 1:06.2 | Debated whether this is the best three-game series we've ever seen from a set of two teams in the NFL. |
| 1:11.8 | I'm sure there's some good examples you guys could throw our way. |
| 1:14.9 | After that, dug into what it looks like on both sides of the ball. |
| 1:18.2 | Ram Seahawks, again, doesn't get any better than that. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Athletic, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of The Athletic and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.