WiNK

It is almost time for the NFC and AFC championship games so let's look back at how the playoffs all began. Shockingly enough, we are going to look back at Week 17 of the regular season in this week's article on the NFL playoffs.

In Week 17, the Dolphins battled the Patriots in Gillette Stadium (home of the Patriots) and if the Patriots won, they would have secured the #1 seed and a bye in the first round of the playoffs. They were 14 point favorites to win, but in the end it didn't matter as the Dolphins came away with the victory, 27-24, in Foxborough. Since this happened and the Chiefs won, the Patriots dropped down to the #3 seed and the Chiefs ended up getting the bye. The Patriots then had to play the Titans in Wild Card weekend and lost, ending their season, and possibly ending Tom Brady's time with the Patriots. If the Patriots had beat the Dolphins, the Chiefs would have played the Titans in the Wild Card round rather than the upcoming AFC championship game. The Patriots would have gotten the bye and played the winner of that game. Nearly the whole AFC playoff picture would have shifted and for that reason, the Dolphins had a huge impact on the NFL playoff picture.