Report: NFL considering NFC, AFC Championship games at neutral sites in future

The NFL could see a neutral site AFC Championship Game between the Kansas City Chiefs and Buffalo Bills this season. But that could become the new norm for both conferences.

The interest of neutral site games prior to the Super Bowl is real, according to a report from Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk. Right now, the Chiefs and Bills provide the only possibility of a neutral site game, amid the Damar Hamlin incident late in the regular season.

The neutral site is game is scheduled for Atlanta. The event reportedly sold 50,000 tickets to Chiefs and Bills fans.

“The NFL envies the atmosphere of major college bowl games, where a 50/50 mix of fans are decked out in team colors,” Florio wrote. “It’s one thing about college football that pro football does not fully replicate.”

The NFL would need 24 owners to vote yes on neutral sites, should it come to a vote, in order to implement neutral site games for the AFC and NFC Championship games.

“But even if the Bills and Chiefs don’t make it to the next round this year, the league’s decision to tout the ticket sales (became) the foundation for the NFL to sell the possibility to owners and fans,” Florio wrote. “(The NFL saw it as) innovative and ground-breaking and the next step in growing the game, by taking two more of its most significant events to different cites and stadiums, every year.”

AFC Championship game in Atlanta

So, how and why does the neutral site AFC title game come into play this year? 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 announced a neutral site for the AFC title game.

CLICK HERE to subscribe for FREE to the On3 YouTube channel

If Cincinnati beat Buffalo straight up, the Bengals would’ve clinched the No. 2 seed. The Bengals did not receive a chance at a higher seed.

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.

Alex Weber contributed to this report