The National Football League canceled the game between the Buffalo Bills and Cincinnati Bengals that was postponed after a harrowing injury to Damar Hamlin, and devised a plan to avert chaos in its fast-approaching playoffs.
(Bloomberg) — The National Football League canceled the game between the Buffalo Bills and Cincinnati Bengals that was postponed after a harrowing injury to Damar Hamlin, and devised a plan to avert chaos in its fast-approaching playoffs.
The league decided to scrap the game because it won’t affect which teams qualify for the post-season and because doing so before the final week of the regular season allows for transparency around playoff scenarios, the NFL said in a statement late Thursday. At the same time, the league acknowledged that scrapping the game “creates potential competitive inequities in certain playoff scenarios.”
To account for that, the league recommended two changes that were approved by the NFL competition committee and by team owners. The plan involves just four teams and will only take effect if needed, the NFL said.
The first part of the plan stipulates that the American Football Conference Championship Game — where the winner advances to the Super Bowl — will be played at a neutral location if both teams could have been the No. 1 seed had the Bills and Bengals finished their match-up.
As it stands, the Bills are 12-3, the Bengals are 11-4 and the Kansas City Chiefs are 13-3. That means if Buffalo and Kansas City both won or tied — and then both advanced to the AFC Championship — it would be held at a neutral site. The same would apply if both teams lost their final regular-season contest, but Cincinnati was also defeated or tied.
If the Bills and Chiefs both lose, while the Bengals win, then an AFC Championship featuring Kansas City and either Buffalo or Cincinnati would be at a neutral site.
That neutral site could be indoors or outdoors. The league will have more to share next week if it looks like a neutral site may be needed after Sunday’s games, said Michael North, the NFL’s vice president for broadcast planning, in a briefing with reporters Friday. There are always stadiums “on backup,” he said.
There’s one other wrinkle for the league to consider. If the Baltimore Ravens (10-6) beat the Bengals this weekend for the second time this year, they still won’t have a better winning percentage over 17 games than Cincinnati over 16 games.
The NFL’s solution, should they be matched up in a Wild Card game: a coin flip to determine the venue.
It’s impossible to create “perfect equity” in a extraordinary situation like this, Rich McKay, chairman of the NFL’s competition committee, told reporters.
Separately, the Bills said on Friday that doctors at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center removed Hamlin’s breathing tube overnight and he “continues to progress remarkably in his recovery.”
The team added that he spoke over FaceTime with Buffalo’s players and coaches.
“Love you boys,” he said, according to the Bills.
–With assistance from Janine Phakdeetham.
(Updates with owners vote in third paragraph, neutral site plans in seventh.)
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