No neutral site: Pittsburgh won’t host AFC Championship Game without Steelers in it

Despite reports that the Steelers’ Acrisure Stadium could host a neutral site AFC Championship Game, the league is not considering Pittsburgh as a location.

Steelers fans don’t have to worry about being trolled for an AFC Championship Game being hosted at their home stadium without them in it.

A league spokesperson confirmed that Acrisure Stadium is not being considered to host the hypothetical neutral site AFC Championship Game if it’s needed for a Chiefs-Bills/Bengals matchup, SteelersNow reported on Friday.

The idea of Pittsburgh being considered to host that neutral site game had been floated by some on Twitter. It turns out those reports were not accurate.

I had an NFL source tell me that he thinks if the neutral site AFC championship scenario plays out, the game will be in Pittsburgh at Acisure Stadium. That would be wild.

— Andrew Fillipponi (@ThePoniExpress) January 6, 2023

That means the only AFC Championship Game that would be played in Pittsburgh this year would be one hosted by the Steelers themselves. And that’s not possible because the Steelers are still battling for the last playoff spot in the AFC. If they get it, they would be on the road for the entirety of the playoffs.

Pittsburgh won’t host AFC Championship Game but still fighting for playoffs

To make it into the postseason, Pittsburgh needs to beat the Browns on Sunday. Then they need the Patriots to lose to the Bills and the Jets to beat the Dolphins.

It’s a long shot all three of those things will happen. At the same time, being alive for the playoffs on the final weekend of regular-season games is a surprise given the way the 2022 season started. The Steelers started 3-7 before Kenny Pickett and the team found their feet late in the season. Three straight wins have made talking about the postseason possible. A fourth is the only thing Pittsburgh controls at this stage.

The neutral site AFC Championship Game is a possibility because of the suspension and cancelation of Monday Night Football between the Bills and Bengals after safety Damar Hamlin’s terrifying collapse. The NFL voted to allow a neutral site to host the AFC Championship Game if the two teams involved, whether the Chiefs, Bills or Bengals, had their pursuit of homefield advantage impacted by the cancelation.