Sometimes, it takes careful analysis to understand where the NFL’s hockey puck is going. Other times, it’s obvious.
The NFL’s next he-shoots-he-scores (more cash) moment is coming from an apparent plan to make the conference championship games neutral-site affairs.
The evidence is hiding in plain sight. With a potential AFC Championship in Atlanta between the Bills and the Chiefs derailed as soon as tomorrow, the league wants everyone to know, in the event both teams don’t win this weekend, it would have been awesome. In other words, It will be awesome when we vote to play both conference championships at a neutral site.
We sold 50,000 tickets in 24 hours! Half the stadium would be Bills fans and the other half would be Chiefs fans! How awesome is that!
Wouldn’t you prefer that to seeing the same-old partisan crowd for a postseason game? Sure that’s already awesome! But this would be awesomer!
It doesn’t matter whether you agree. Read the announcement from the league. Ask yourself why it was announced when it was announced. There was no reason whatsoever to comment on ticket sales for a game that will happen only if both Kansas City and Buffalo win in the divisional round.
Unless the reason was to give the Jaguars and Bengals more bulletin-board material, the foundation is further being put in place for the NFL’s next strategy for cramming even more cheese into the crust of the pizza — and for squeezing more golden eggs from the goose’s ass.
It doesn’t feel like an if. It seems like a when. And if the Bills and Chiefs meet in Atlanta and it goes as well as the NFL hopes, when could be as soon as next year.
If Bills-Chiefs doesn’t happen, the fact that 50,000 tickets were sold in 24 hours for a game that was still only theoretical becomes the next best argument for giving the neutral-site thing a whirl, even if it’s only a one-year experiment that quickly becomes permanent.