Sunday afternoon, I plan to be inside Arrowhead Stadium rooting on the Kansas City Chiefs in their first-round playoff game with the Baltimore Ravens.

It’s the Chiefs’ next step at fighting for a world championship, and it’s why the playoffs is a fantastic time of year in sports.

In rodeo, we have the Wrangler Million Dollar Tour, a series of established rodeos that guides the top finishers in the tour to the Justin Boots Playoffs in Puyallup, Wash. From there, contestants earn the right to compete at the Justin Boots Championship in Omaha, Neb., for even bigger dollars.

While rodeo is rare in that contestants can compete for world titles without making the playoffs, every cowboy in the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association knows how important it is to do well on the tour and fight through the playoffs en route to qualifying for the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo.

While NFL teams battle over the coming weeks for the top prize in the sport, cowboys and cowgirls have already begun their trek for 2011 gold buckles. It’s an exciting time, that’s for sure.