The N.F.L. announced Thursday that Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta will serve as the neutral site for a potential A.F.C. championship game between the Buffalo Bills and Kansas City should those teams advance.
That game would be played on Sunday, Jan. 29 at 6:30 p.m. Eastern.
The N.F.L. last week approved a resolution to “mitigate the competitive inequities” caused by the Jan. 2 cancellation of the Bills-Bengals game after Damar Hamlin went into cardiac arrest.
That Week 17 game carried massive playoff implications. Both the Bills and the Bengals were in contention for the A.F.C.’s No. 1 seed, which comes with a coveted bye for the playoff’s first round and home-field advantage throughout the postseason.
The N.F.L. postponed the game after Hamlin’s collapse and later announced it would not be replayed. Kansas City (14-3) was in first place when the game was stopped and won its final regular season game to hold onto the conference’s top seed.
But Kansas City had lost to both the Bills (13-3) and Bengals (12-4) during the regular season, and because Buffalo and Kansas City played an uneven amount of games, if the teams meet in the conference championship the league decided that it should be played at a neutral site. A matchup between other teams in the A.F.C. championship would be played at the home stadium of the team with the higher seed, the league said.
The N.F.L. said in a statement playing the game in Mercedes-Benz Stadium, which opened in 2017 and hosted Super Bowl LIII in 2019, would make sense in this situation because it is nearly equidistant to both Buffalo and Kansas City.
Hamlin was discharged from a Buffalo hospital on Wednesday, and his continued improvement 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 said, adding that he was “grateful to Arthur Blank and the Atlanta Falcons for agreeing to host the A.F.C. championship game.”
The Bills, who have 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 on Sunday in the wild-card round.
