This Chiefs coach has made 10 straight AFC Championship Games: ‘It’s been a good run’
While on the plane headed to this week’s Super Bowl, Brendan Daly said he was stopped by a Chiefs player who had a question for him:
Have you really made it to 10 straight conference championship games?
That answer — crazy as it seems — is yes.
“It’s been a good run,” Daly said with a smile at this week’s Super Bowl availability.
The string of success is likely unmatched by any other assistant coach in NFL history. Daly started as a defensive assistant with the New England Patriots in 2014, before getting promoted to defensive line coach the following season.
After five years with New England, Daly took a job with the Chiefs in 2019, serving as both D-line and linebackers coach since then.
In each of those 10 years — five with each team — Daly has coached in the AFC Championship Game. His team’s record in those contests is 8-2, which includes five Super Bowl titles.
That’s also not counting this year’s Super Bowl between the Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers on Sunday at Allegiant Stadium.
“I don’t know how to explain it,” Daly said. “I’ve just been fortunate, and it’s been a lot of fun. It’s been a great ride.”
Other coaches on the Chiefs’ staff have taken notice. Daly said most of them laugh about his feat continuing another year.
“You get in such a grind and a rhythm that you don’t necessarily feel the 10. You’re just focused on the moment and the one that you’re in,’’ Daly said. “But it feels fantastic to win them, I can tell you that.”
Daly, who has coached linebackers the last two seasons, is starting to get some notice for his efforts. He interviewed for the New York Giants’ defensive coordinator position last week, according to ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler, before the team elected to go with Shane Bowen on Monday.
Chiefs linebacker Willie Gay described Daly as an “amazing coach.” Chiefs quarterbacks coach David Girardi, meanwhile, labeled Daly’s decade-long stretch as “impressive.”
“It doesn’t surprise me,” Girardi said. “He does a great job.”
Daly’s 10-year streak also has coincided with the start of a unique pregame tradition: He runs the stairs of each stadium a few hours before kickoff.
The ritual started in New England when a group of coaches would exercise together that way before the game. When Daly moved to KC, he kept up the habit by himself, saying it’s a great stress reliever.
“It kind of gets me focused, gets my mind in the right frame for going to the game,” Daly said. “It’s just become part of my routine that I really enjoy at this point.”
Not that it always goes smoothly. Daly jokes that there are “hazards everywhere” while getting in his Sunday cardio, which includes the weather, salt and ice issues, and sometimes inconvenient placing of cupholders.
Daly said he’s also gotten followed multiple times by less-than-understanding security personnel. Before Super Bowl LVII in Minnesota, he was even chased through a U.S. Bank Stadium cafeteria.
“A lot of times, guys on the sideline, when I get back, I’ll give them the details of what type of adversity we dealt with on the day through the stands,” Daly said with a laugh.
Regarding the recent success, Daly said it’s not something he takes for granted. He went through some challenging years in the NFL, which included 1-15 and 2-14 records as a St. Louis Rams assistant while working under current Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo from 2009-11.
Those times seem long ago, given what the Chiefs and Patriots have experienced with Daly over the last 10 seasons.
“Honestly, you stop counting, and you just focus on doing your job,” Daly said. “But it’s something I’ll look back on at some point, and I appreciate it.”
This story was originally published February 7, 2024 at 6:00 AM with the headline "This Chiefs coach has made 10 straight AFC Championship Games: ‘It’s been a good run’."
