NFL playoffs: Bills coin toss streak, Al Michaels’ NBC future

The divisional round of the NFL playoffs resumes Sunday with the Los Angeles Rams facing the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, followed by the Buffalo Bills taking on the Kansas City Chiefs at 6:30 p.m. on CBS.

This will be the fifth time the Bills and Chiefs have met in the playoffs, dating back to 1967. Unfortunately for both teams, the winner of the four previous games have gone on to lose the Super Bowl, most recently last year, with the Chiefs being defeated by Tom Brady and the Buccaneers.

On a more positive note for the Bills, quarterback Josh Allen has been unstoppable for more than a month, but as Buffalo News writer Jason Wolf points out, that dominance also extends to the coin toss.

Allen is 8-0 this season calling the coin toss on the road, where the visiting team’s captain calls heads or tails at midfield. If you add in the Week 14 overtime coin toss against the Buccaneers, he’s 9-0.

What are the odds of Allen going 10-0 tonight? According to Gino Biondini, chair of the department of mathematics at the University at Buffalo, 0.097656%.

Calling the Bills-Chiefs game will be Tony Romo and his play-by-play partner Jim Nantz, who said he was once referred to as the “The Pope” after wrapping himself in a white blanket to call a frigid Chiefs game in Arrowhead Stadium against the Denver Broncos. The temperature at kickoff is forecast to be a chilly 35 degrees, but even if he’s bundled up in a jacket, Nantz will still be sporting the traditional CBS blazer during the broadcast.

“I like wearing the blue blazer,” Nantz told Jimmy Traina on this week’s Sports Illustrated Media Podcast. “That’s our uniform. We wear uniforms. ... There are some traditions unlike any other, and that is one I happen to like. I hope it never changes.”

Here’s everything you need to know to watch Sunday’s games:

Sunday’s early game will air on NBC, with Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth calling what could be their second-to-last matchup together.

New York Post reporter Andrew Marchand has reported that Michaels is likely to jump from NBC to Amazon to call Thursday Night Football on their Amazon Prime streaming service next season. Michaels’ contact expires after the Super Bowl, which he will call for NBC, and the 77-year-old said he doesn’t plan on retiring anytime soon.

“As we sit here right now, and we’re eight or nine months away from the next football season … to me, retirement is almost a dirty word,” Michaels said on HBO’s Back On The Record With Bob Costas.

“At this point in my life, I’m just living in the moment and just enjoying the hell out of this season in particular,” Michaels added.

One thing we do know is the Super Bowl will be Tafoya’s last game for NBC. She hasn’t said what her plans are moving forward, but NBC has made it clear her departure has nothing to do with her guest hosting stint on The View.

“If I wanted to stay in sports television, I wouldn’t be leaving,” Tafoya said during a recent conference call. “This is about opening a new chapter for me, so that’s really all I can say.”

» READ MORE: NBC looks to keep Cris Collinsworth, possibly pairing him with Mike Tirico

» READ MORE: Former Eagle Ryan Bates flourishing with Bills and dreaming of a Super Bowl