On Sunday, the New England Patriots will play in the AFC Championship for the 16th time.
That ties them for the second most appearances since the 1970 AFL-NFL merger, with the Steelers. The 49ers, who fell one game short last weekend of their 20th NFC title game, lead the way with 19.
New England has an 11-4 record in conference championships. That’s the second-highest winning percentage for teams with more than five appearances. (The Giants are a perfect 5-0.)
The highest winning percentage for teams with more than five conference championship games is New England’s opponent on Sunday. The Broncos, who’ll be playing in their 11th AFC Championship, are 8-2.
New England has been to 14 conference championship games since 1996. Which dovetails nicely with the Cowboys, who went to 14 post-merger conference championship games before 1996. In the 30 years since then, the Cowboys have zero.
The only teams who haven’t been to at least one since 1996 are the Dolphins (1992) and the Browns (1989) — if, of course, we ignore that the franchise that was the Browns moved to Baltimore and became the Ravens, which have been there five times since 1996.
The Texans, who lost to the Patriots last Sunday, are the only NFL team to never play for the right to play in the Super Bowl.
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