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NFL announces Atlanta will host potential AFC championship game between Bills and Chiefs

Alex Weberby:Alex Weber•01/12/23
nfl
(Photo by David J. Griffin/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

In continued fallout from the cancelled Week 17 game between the Cincinnati Bengals and Buffalo Bills, the NFL decided that an AFC Championship game between the Buffalo Bills and Kansas City Chiefs would take place in a neutral stadium — since there were major seeding consequences in play had the Bills-Bengals game been played. We now know where that game will be played if necessary.

According to NFL insider Ian Rapoport, the Chiefs and Bills would kick off in Atlanta at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Here was his report, which he posted on Twitter:

“Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta would host a potential AFC Championship Game between the Buffalo Bills and Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday, January 29, at 6:30 p.m. ET.”

Apparently, Atlanta was already chosen as a possible neutral site host before the season, should circumstances require. Plus, Atlanta is about as in-the-middle between Buffalo and Kansas City as possible, so the decision made perfect sense in this scenario.

For more info on the game, you can check out the official NFL memo announcing the news:

AFC Playoff Picture

For those in need of informing, here are the AFC playoff teams and their seeds:

  1. Kansas City Chiefs (14-3)*
  2. Buffalo Bills (13-3)*
  3. Cincinnati Bengals (12-4)*
  4. Jacksonville Jaguars (9-8)*
  5. Los Angeles Chargers (10-7)
  6. Baltimore Ravens (10-7)
  7. Miami Dolphins (9-8)

* Division champions

So, how and why does the neutral site AFC title game come into play? Well, the Bills beat the Chiefs in the regular season and would have overtaken Kansas City as the one-seed had they beat Cincinnati — an opportunity that was taken away from them. To make up for the possibility of the Bills taking the one-seed in that game, the NFL decreed that an AFC title game between the two would be played on a neutral site.

However, had Cincinnati beaten Buffalo in the cancelled game, the Bengals would be the outright two-seed over Buffalo. So their opportunity for higher seeding was also taken from them. Except that the NFL decided that Cincinnati will play Buffalo on the road in the playoffs regardless. Essentially, they applied differing logic to two very similar situations.

Confusing, right? Always is with the NFL. But the one clear fact after today: A Bills vs. Chiefs AFC title will take place in Atlanta and no other games have neutral site potential.