How life has changed since 2011 last time Patriots didn’t play in AFC Championship Game

SportsPulse: In a battle of generations, the young gun Patrick Mahomes takes on the G.O.A.T. Tom Brady for the AFC title. NFL insider Lorenzo Reyes breaks down who has the edge and who will come out on top. USA TODAY

One of the greatest dynasties in all of sports will live on for another year.

The New England Patriots will make an unprecedented eighth consecutive trip to the AFC Championship Game after Sunday’s 41-28 win over the Los Angeles Chargers, the 13th in Tom Brady 17 seasons as the organization’s franchise quarterback (not counting 2008 campaign when he suffered a season-ending knee injury in the season opener).

The last AFC title game that didn’t feature Brady and Bill Belichick was January 23, 2011, and a lot has taken place since then.

From then to now, here’s what’s happened over the Patriots’ historic run.

Top songs

2011’s No. 1 song was Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep,” followed by LMFAO’s “Party Rock Anthem” and Katy Perry’s “Firework”.

Top movies

“The King’s Speech”took home the Oscar for Best Picture. The other nominees were “Black Swan”, “The Fighter”, “Inception”, “The Kids are All Right”, “127 Hours”, “The Social Network”, “Toy Story 3”, “True Grit” and “Winter’s Bone”.

If you wanted to see one of those movies, the national average for a movie ticket was around $7.93. If you wanted to see a movie today at your local Regal theater, it would cost an adult somewhere between $13.50-15.75.

Technology

Apple has released 17 models since the iPhone 4, the hot, new phone at the time. The first edition of the Samsung Galaxy Note was released later in the year, and now has nine other models. As for tablets, the iPad2 was still not announced. Later in the year, Amazon’s Kindle Fire was released.

Elsewhere in sports

Golden State Warriors sharp-shooting guard Steph Curry has made 2,066 three-pointers (as of Jan. 14, 2019) since the Pats last missed the AFC Championship Game. The other football dynasty, Nick Saban and the Alabama Crimson Tide, have won four national titles (2011, 2012, 2015, 2017) with a 103-10 record.

On the flip side, the opposite of the Patriots dynasty would be the Cleveland Browns. 16 different quarterbacks have started for the Browns in that time span: Colt McCoy, Seneca Wallace, Brandon Weeden, Thad Lewis, Jason Campbell, Brian Hoyer, Johnny Manziel, Connor Shaw, Josh McCown, Austin Davis, Cody Kessler, Robert Griffin III, DeShone Kizer, Kevin Hogan, Tyrod Taylor and Baker Mayfield.

They’ve also cycled through six different head coaches: Pat Shurmur, Rod Chudzinski, Mike Pettine, Hue Jackson, Gregg Williams and Freddie Kitchens.

With a trip to the Super Bowl on the line, the Patriots will travel to Kansas City to take on Patrick Mahomes and the No. 1 seed Chiefs this Sunday. Mahomes was just 15 years old the last time Brady didn’t play in the conference title game.