Next Sunday’s playoff games provide a contrast in starting quarterbacks. For the AFC title game it is a couple of youngsters, Patrick Mahomes of the Kansas City Chiefs and Josh Allen of the Buffalo Bills. The NFC game has a couple of old geezers, Tom Brady of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Aaron Rodgers of the Green Bay Packers.

I know that Mahomes is not a sure bet to play in the AFC championship. He had to leave last week’s game with Cleveland with what was suspected to be a concussion and thereby is going through the NFL’s concussion protocol. If he doesn’t respond in the way the protocols demand, he won’t be allowed to play. If Mahomes doesn’t play, a 13-year veteran, Chad Henne, will likely start and upset the premise of this piece.

I am a dyed in the wool Chiefs’ fan as most who know me understand. I was rooting hard when Kansas City and Green Bay met in the first Super Bowl in 1966. I cheered lustily when the Chiefs topped Minnesota in the 1969 Super Bowl. I was a faithful fan through the entire 50-year stretch when there wasn’t a Kansas City team in football’s big game. And, of course, I again celebrated with other Chiefs fans when our team won it all last year. And like most other Chiefs’ fans, I have been become a huge enthusiast for Mahomes, who seems to be able to work miracles with the football.

Believe it or not, Mahomes caught my eye when he was playing for Texas Tech. The Red Raiders didn’t win as consistently for him as the Chiefs have, but the several times I saw him, he was impressive enough. When I heard that he was going to become a Chief, I was pleased. As a junior at Tech, he led the nation in passing yards (5,520) and in total touchdowns (53) stats that aren’t too shabby.

Should he play in the title game, his opponent at quarterback will be Allen, who at 24 is a year younger. Allen played college at Wyoming and started out as the Bills backup. But he eventually took over at the position and finished his rookie season as the starter. Last year he led the Bills to a 10-win season and its first playoff appearance in a while and this year under his leadership, the Bills won a division title and have advanced to the Championship game. Allen is a little larger than Mahomes, carrying 235 pounds on a 6-foot-5 frame. He can run the ball pretty well, and I think I am safe in saying that the Chiefs will not call many running plays for their quarterback after last week’s injury. By the way, I never saw Allen play in college, but his name caught my attention back then, because it was the same as that of a former Ponca City High School football coach who also played quarterback in college.

So, unless Kansas City uses Henne as its signal caller, everything is set up as a battle of a couple of kids.

Segue to the NFC Championship game. I was watching with interest Sunday night when the game featured the 43-year-old Brady versus 42-year old Drew Brees of New Orleans. Brady won the right to go up against Aaron Rodgers of Green Bay--a mere kid of 37.

Usually I cheer for the old geezers, perhaps because I have been in that category longer than Mahomes and Allen have been alive. But if the Chiefs make it to the Super Bowl, I will desert my kind and root for the younger guy.

Brady has become the guy some people love to hate. That’s partially because of his success. He methodically directed his former team (the New England Patriots) to nine Super Bowls and won six of them. He and his Coach Bill Belichick teamed up to make a pair of guys people love to hate. Belichick’s dour personality explains why people feel that way about him. I’m not sure why Brady isn’t liked so much, except for when he was involved in “Deflategate” where footballs were discovered to be underinflated on purpose by the Patriots. That gave him the persona of a cheater. Brady has also been seen as being a whiner, always harping at the referees.

But it was a joy to watch both he and Brees at work in Sunday’s game. They were two old masters coolly applying their trade.

Rodgers has been an outstanding quarterback, but for the past two years has been known more widely as the boyfriend of NASCAR driver Danica Patrick. The two broke up before the current season and a couple of talking heads I heard at the beginning of the year wondered if he wouldn’t have a great season because he no longer had a high profile girlfriend. I don’t know if the breakup had anything to do with Rodgers’ performance this year, but he’s had a great season and the Packers are the odds-on favorite to make it to the Super Bowl.

By the way, Brady has the distinction of having been the oldest quarterback to play in the Super Bowl. He was 41 years old when he played in Super Bowl LIII. Peyton Manning was 39 when he played for the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl 50. Other aged quarterbacks and their teams were John Elway, 38, Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XXXIII; Johnny Unitas, 37, Baltimore Colts, Super Bowl V; Kurt Warner, 37, Arizona Cardinals, Super Bowl XLIII; Rich Gannon, 37, Oakland Raiders, Super Bowl XXXVII; Fran Tarkenton, Minnesota Vikings, Super Bowl XI; Roger Staubach, Dallas Cowboys, Super Bowl XIII; Jim Plunkett, Los Angeles Raiders, Super Bowl XVIII; and Bart Starr, 34, Green Bay Packers, Super Bowl II.

Dan Marino, quarterback for the Miami Dolphins in Super Bowl XIX was the youngest to start. He was 23. Ben Roethlisberger was also 23 when he started for the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XL. Other young Super Bowl quarterbacks were Mahomes, 24, Kansas City Chiefs; David Woodley, 24, Miami Dolphins Super Bowl XVII; Tom Brady, 24, New England Patriots, Super Bowl XXXVI; Drew Bledsoe, 24, New England Patriots, Super Bowl XXXI; Colin Kaepernick, 25, San Francisco 49ers, Super Bowl XLVII; Joe Namath, 25, New York Jets, Super Bowl III; Joe Montana, 25, San Francisco 49ers, Super Bowl XVI; Vince Ferragamo, 25, Los Angeles Rams, Super Bowl XIV and Troy Aikman, 25, Dallas Cowboys Super Bowl XXVI.. A Green Bay win in the

NFC game is kind of what I’m hoping for. I would love to have the Chiefs make it to the big game also. That would set up a rematch of the 1966 game. The Chiefs would have an opportunity to avenge their Super Bowl I 35-10 defeat to the Packers. Revenge is sweet, even when it takes 54 years to achieve.