When NFL owners met to vote for the approval of Resolution G-1, Kansas City Chiefs CEO and Chairman Clark Hunt was among the few to abstain from voting on the proposal.
According to ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler, the Chiefs decided to abstain from voting on the playoff changes because they felt the teams directly impacted shouldn’t vote due to potential bias. The Cincinnati Bengals are presumed to be among the teams to have voted “no” to the proposal after executive vice president Katie Blackburn pushed back against it.
The #Chiefs abstained from voting on the proposed AFC playoff changes, per source, with the thinking that teams directly impacted by the changes should not vote due to bias.
— Jeremy Fowler (@JFowlerESPN) January 6, 2023
Blackburn’s qualm with the proposal was simple — voting to make this change during the season introduces bias into the equation.
“The proper process for making rule change (sic) is in the off-season,” Blackburn wrote, via ESPN. “It is not appropriate to put teams in a position to vote for something that may introduce bias, favor one team over another or impact their own situation when the vote takes place immediately before the playoffs.”
It appears that the Chiefs agreed with Blackburn’s concerns.
According to Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio, the proposal passed with 25 “yes” votes. It needed just 24 votes in order to pass. Florio says that three to four teams voted “no” and that the rest abstained from voting.
