With MetLife Stadium hosting Super Bowl XLVIII, the Jets and Giants naturally will be loaning their facilities to the teams that qualify -- assuming both of them don’t. But the NFL has rejected an attempt by the two teams to keep their enemies out of their homes.
The Jets wanted the NFC team to use its locker room and practice facilities, and the Giants proposed hosting the AFC team. The NFL has declined that request, according to Gary Myers of the New York Daily News.
The standard procedure is for the local AFC team (if there is one) to host the AFC team when it’s the home team, and for the local NFC team (if there is one) to host the NFC team, when it’s the home team.
For New York, there’s both an AFC and an NFC team, so regardless of which conference was providing the home team in Super Bowl XLVIII, the Jets would be opening their doors for the AFC team, and the Giants for the NFC team.
It’s not an uncommon phenomenon. The Saints would have been hosting their arch-rivals from Atlanta this year, if the Falcons hadn’t blown a 17-point lead in the NFC title game. Last year, the Colts hosted the Patriots.
For cities that want to host a Super Bowl, it’s part of the cost of doing business. And it’s good that the NFL didn’t grant an exemption to the Jets and the Giants.
Now, if the Jets want to keep the Patriots out of their building and the Giants want to block the Cowboys, Redskins, or Eagles, the Jets and Giants can do something about it.