Tom Brady: 10th AFC title game 'beyond my wildest dreams'

By virtue of their 27-20 win over the Kansas City Chiefs on Saturday night, the New England Patriots earned a berth in the AFC Championship game. It is the 12th conference title game appearance for the franchise, but the 10th during the Bill Belichick-Tom Brady era.

Drafted 199th overall in 2000, Brady became the Patriots' starting quarterback in the third game of the 2001 season, and he missed nearly the entire 2008 season when he suffered a torn ACL in the first quarter of the regular-season opener.

So in 14 seasons as New England's starter, Brady has been to this point in the postseason every year but four. To put things in perspective, Brady's 10 appearances are more than 27 NFL franchises have made in their respective histories. The win over the Chiefs also marked his 22nd; only eight franchises have more.

And for a player who isn't big on looking back and noting his achievements, even Brady can't quite believe that number.

“It’s beyond what I’d ever imagined in my wildest dreams,” he said Monday morning during his weekly appearance on Boston sports radio station WEEI. “I remember the first one I ever participated in, which was in Pittsburgh. We had to fly there on a Friday. I missed Friday of practice so I could do a press conference at the site of the game. It was the first time it really felt like, wow, this is a big deal.

"Fifteen years later, to be a part of 10 of those, I never imagined that any of this was ever even possible. I just knew that I loved the game, and I played with so many great teammates who have, like I said, sacrificed so much. When you play with teammates like I have and you see what they go through over the course of the season, what they deal with in their lives personally, how that reacts to them professionally, kind of the blood, sweat and tears you put into it, you never take it for granted."

This is the fifth straight conference title for New England, tying the record set by the Oakland Raiders from 1973-77.

For some of the youngest Patriots players, they've known nothing but playing for the AFC championship, and may not have the same appreciation for the achievement as Brady, but he thinks that's understandable.

“It can be a natural thing to do as a human if you’ve been on the team for five years and you have five trips to this game. But I think Coach Belichick does a great job of always kind of living in the moment," Brady said. "He talks about the past a little bit just to kind of give us references to things that may have happened. But guys are geared up and ready to play. Every single week it’s really about, we set the goal at the beginning of the week, and this is how we’re going to win, and this is how they win, and this is what we need to do. It’s going to be another one of those weeks."

New England will play the top-seeded Denver Broncos in Denver on Sunday, the one place where the Patriots have consistently struggled, and the only team Brady does not have a winning record against in his career (5-6).

“It’s a great accomplishment for our team. But this is going to be a huge challenge for us," he said of playing the Broncos. "Hopefully our team is ready to step up and take the challenge head on. It’s going to take a great week of preparation. It’s a team that we obviously know very well. We played them already out there. We’re going to have to play our best game of the year.”