CINCINNATI — Joe Burrow couldn't help but clap back at the NFL Sunday after the Cincinnati Bengals triumphed over the Buffalo Bills, advancing to the AFC Championship for the second straight year.
"Better send those refunds," Burrow told CBS's Tracy Wolfson after the Bengals victory Sunday evening, referencing the pre-sale of tickets to the neutral-site AFC Championship game that would have happened if the Bills had beaten the Bengals.
The NFL's mid-January announcement that tickets were on sale for that possible neutral-site game between the Bills and Kansas City Chiefs drew ire from many a fan in Cincinnati.
The practice of pre-selling tickets and issuing refunds for games that don't pan out isn't unusual in the NFL; the Cincinnati Bengals recently announced they were already selling tickets to the Super Bowl, and tickets have been on sale for all possible AFC Championship scenarios.
So what set Bengals fans — and players — off about this arrangement? The announcement felt like a snub.
Owners of the 32 franchises decided a neutral site championship game would happen if it were between Buffalo and Kansas City after the NFL officially canceled the Bengals-Bills regular season game. That decision came in the aftermath of Damar Hamlin collapsing on the field at Paycor Stadium during the Bengals-Bills regular season Monday Night Football game.
The rationale for the neutral site game was because the Chiefs (14-3) played one more game than the Bills (13-3), but had the same amount of losses. The Chiefs also played one more game than the Bengals (12-4), but Cincinnati's extra loss meant there would not be a neutral site for the Bengals and Chiefs now that they are once again meeting in the AFC Championship.
This was on top of the possible coin toss that would have decided the location of the wild card round, had Cincinnati lost to the Baltimore Ravens in its regular season finally. To be fair, if the Bills and Chiefs had lost their final regular season game, a possible Bengals-Chiefs championship game would have been at a neutral site, but the upside for Kansas City, Buffalo and even Baltimore, seemed much greater than for Cincinnati as a result of the unique playoff procedures.
Burrow wasn't the only one to take the opportunity to throw shade on the NFL's recent decisions; Head Coach Zac Taylor had some thoughts of his own during the post-game press conference Sunday evening.
"We had our minds set to go play in Kansas City and it is tough, because they're, they have to formulate the plan for coin tosses and they gotta formulate the plan for neutral-site games and we just keep screwing it up for everybody and I hate that for the people who have to endure all those logistical issues and then we just keep screwing it up. I'm sorry," said a smiling Taylor.
Zac Taylor throwing INCREDIBLE shade about the neutral sited #Chiefs-#Bills AFC Championship tickets needing to be refunded. #Bengals are headed to KC.#RuleTheJungle @WCPO pic.twitter.com/7IfPysGtXw
— Marshall Kramsky (@marshallkramsky) January 23, 2023
After the game, running back Joe Mixon took to Twitter to to stir the pot a little with jokes of refunds.
AFC CHAMPIONSHIP IN MERCEDES BENZ STADIUM⁉️ THAT’LL BE NEVERUARY🤣
MAKE SURE YALL GO GET YALL REFUNDS BACK‼️☝🏽#WHODEY
— ⚡️Primetime!!!⚡️ (@Joe_MainMixon) January 23, 2023
