KANSAS CITY, Mo. — At a special league meeting Friday, NFL clubs passed a resolution to play the AFC Championship Game at a neutral site “for the 2022 season only," if necessary.
The decision comes after days of speculation following the suspension of the Bills-Bengals Monday Night Football match after Damar Hamlin was injured and escorted from the field.
The commissioner will determine a destination for the neutral site, which is yet to be released.
This move is contingent on the participating teams having played a different number of regular season games, the potential of the lower-seeded team to be No. 1 had the full 17-game season been played and whether both teams could have been No. 1 and hosted the championship.
Otherwise, the game would be played at the home stadium of the high-seeded team per usual.
This Sunday, if Baltimore defeats Cincinnati and the two are set to face one another in the Wild Card Game, the NFL has resolved the “site of the game will be determined by a coin toss supervised by the commissioner.”
The decisions made Friday were made to “mitigate certain competitive effects” in the playoffs, per the NFL.
Before the changes were announced, Buffalo provided an update that morning that Hamlin spoke with teammates after his breathing tube was removed.
Read KSHB’s breakdown of Kansas City’s possible playoff picture here.
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