The N.F.L. introduced Thursday that Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta would serve as the impartial web site for a possible A.F.C. championship sport between Buffalo and Kansas City, ought to these groups advance.
That sport could be performed Jan. 29, a Sunday, at 6:30 p.m., Eastern time.
The N.F.L. final week accepted a decision to “mitigate the competitive inequities” attributable to the cancellation of the Jan. 2 Bills-Bengals sport due to Damar Hamlin’s cardiac arrest.
That sport, in Week 17, had vital playoff implications. Both the Buffalo Bills and the Cincinnati Bengals have been in competition for the A.F.C.’s No. 1 seed, which comes with a coveted bye for the playoffs’ first spherical and home-field benefit all through the convention playoffs.
The N.F.L. postponed the sport after Hamlin’s collapse, then introduced later that the sport wouldn’t be resumed or replayed. Kansas City was in first place when the sport was stopped after which received its remaining regular-season sport to complete with a 14-3 document and maintain on to the convention’s prime seed.
Kansas City misplaced to the Bills (13-3) and the Bengals (12-4) throughout the common season. Because Buffalo and Kansas City wound up enjoying an uneven quantity of video games, the N.F.L. determined that if the groups met within the convention championship, the sport ought to be performed at a impartial web site. A matchup between different groups for the A.F.C. championship could be performed on the dwelling stadium of the workforce with the upper seed, the league stated.
In a press release, the N.F.L. stated enjoying the sport at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, which opened in 2017 and hosted the Super Bowl within the 2018 season, would make sense as a result of it’s practically equidistant from each Buffalo and Kansas City, Mo. (Buffalo is sort of 900 miles from Atlanta; Kansas City is sort of 800.)
Hamlin was discharged from a Buffalo hospital on Wednesday, and his continued enchancment was cited by the league in its announcement.
“We are heartened by the continued improvement and progress of Damar Hamlin in his recovery, and Damar and his family remain top of mind for the entire N.F.L. community,” Commissioner Roger Goodell stated, including that he was “grateful to Arthur Blank and the Atlanta Falcons for agreeing to host the A.F.C. championship game.”
On Sunday, within the wild-card spherical, the Bills, who’ve the A.F.C.’s No. 2 seed, will host the Miami Dolphins, and the Bengals, with the No. 3 seed, will host the Baltimore Ravens.
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