KC Chiefs and Bills will play in Atlanta for AFC Championship, if needed

The National Football League has finally decided upon Atlanta as the host city for a “neutral site” if one is needed for the Championship game.

The final key to the restructuring of the NFL postseason is finally finished, and the league announced that Atlanta, Georgia would be the host city for a “neutral site” game for the AFC Championship—if things come to it—between the Kansas City Chiefs and Buffalo Bills.

According to a report from Tom Pellissero, the site for a championship showdown to play in the Super Bowl would be at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, home of the Atlanta Falcons.

Of course, there is a lot of football to be played between now and then and five other AFC competitors would like to stop that from happening, so nothing is certain at this stage. However, everyone involved needed to know how things would proceed in case the games worked out to feature the Bills and Chiefs facing off to represent the AFC in Super Bowl LVII.

These changes all stem from the tragic hospitalization suffered by Bills defensive back Damar Hamlin, who went down on the field in a very scary incident in the first quarter of the team’s primetime game against the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 17. Because that game was so important to seeding in the AFC, and because the game itself was postponed and then canceled, it complicated the race for the AFC’s top seed.

In the end, the league decided to alter the criteria for the top seed to win percentage, which gave it to the Chiefs, and they took the first-round bye. However, to avoid Buffalo being punished for something beyond the team’s control, they agreed to not give K.C. homefield advantage if the Bills were the opponent. Thus, the league got involved and has now positioned both franchises to kick off in the Falcons’ home stadium should things come to it.

The AFC Championship is scheduled for Sunday, January 29.