At this point, it's probably safe to say that there's no team in the playoffs that feels more disrespected than the Cincinnati Bengals. When the NFL voted to modify the playoffs this year, the Bengals voted against it and that's mostly because they were the team that got the short end of the stick when the proposals were approved.
This week, the Bengals are feeling even more disrespected after the NFL announced that it was going to start selling tickets for a potential Chiefs-Bills neutral-site AFC Championship Game. If Buffalo and Kansas City both win this weekend, then the two teams will meet on Jan. 29 in Atlanta.
Bengals running back Joe Mixon was asked how he felt about the fact that the NFL was already selling tickets for a game that's not necessarily going to happen and he definitely wasn't happy about it.
"To be honest, it's disrespectful, but we're not worried about that shit," Mixon said, via WCPO in Cincinnati. "We got a game to play on Sunday, right? So you can't count us out. ... We're going to go out there on Sunday and we're going do what the hell we got to do to come back with that 'W.' And then we're going to see what they're talking about."
The Bengals have a lot of reasons to be upset this postseason, but this probably shouldn't be one of them. The NFL routinely starts the ticket-selling process way in advance for any game of this magnitude because of all the logistics involved.
Under normal circumstances, NFL teams give their season-ticket holders a chance to purchase tickets to a conference title game before anyone else in a process that routinely starts before the divisional round (For instance, you can currently go to the NFL's ticket exchange to purchase tickets for a potential Jaguars-Bengals AFC title game that would be played in Cincinnati).
If season-ticket holders don't buy every ticket, then whatever's left goes on sale to the general public during the week of the game.
For the neutral-site game, the NFL opened up ticket sales to Bills and Chiefs season-ticket holders on Wednesday (Tickets will be on sale here). The league is giving each fan base 48 hours to swipe up tickets. After that, there will be another presale on Friday. If the tickets aren't sold out after that window, then whatever's leftover will go on sale to the general public on Jan. 23.
Of course, if the Bengals or Jaguars end up winning this weekend, then you can go ahead and burn those Bills-Chiefs tickets because they'll be worthless, but remember to get a refund before you set anything on fire.
