Playoff plan gets approved
NFL owners have approved a resolution that could lead to a neutral site for the AFC championship in response to the cancellation of Monday night’s Bills-Bengals game after Bills safety Damar Hamlin collapsed on the field.
The league held a special meeting Friday to consider the recommendation of Commissioner Roger Goodell and the league’s competition committee.
“We believe this is a focused approach that would only affect four teams and directly address the potential for competitive inequity resulting from 30 teams playing 17 games and two playing 16 games,” Goodell said in a video conference call.
The league chose to cancel the Bills-Bengals game instead of resuming it this week or next week to avoid disrupting the start of the postseason and impacting the remainder of the playoff field.
The Bills-Bengals game had major playoff implications for the AFC. The Bills (12-3) entered Monday night needing a win to maintain the AFC’s No. 1 seed. The Chiefs (13-3) now hold that spot. The Bengals (11-4) had a chance to earn that top seed with two more wins and a loss by the Chiefs.
The AFC championship will be played at a neutral site if the participating teams played an unequal number of games and both could have been the No. 1 seed and hosted the game had all AFC clubs played a full 17-game regular season.
The league is considering several sites, including indoor and outdoor stadiums.
Those circumstances involve the Bills or Bengals qualifying for the game as a road team. If the Bills and Chiefs both win or tie this weekend, a Bills-Chiefs AFC title game would be at a neutral site. If the Bills and Chiefs both lose and the Ravens win or tie, a Bills-Chiefs AFC title game would be at a neutral site. If the Bills and Chiefs both lose and the Bengals win, Bills or Bengals against the Chiefs in the AFC title game would be at a neutral site.
Also, if the Ravens defeat the Bengals in Week 18, the Ravens would have two wins over the Bengals, a divisional opponent, but the Bengals will have a higher winning percentage for a 16-game schedule than the Ravens will for a 17-game schedule. Therefore, if the Ravens defeat the Bengals and those two clubs are schedule to play a wild-card game against each another, the site for that game would be determined by a coin toss.
If the Bengals win this weekend or if the Ravens and Bengals are not scheduled to play each other in the wild-card round, the game sites would be determined by the regular scheduling procedures.
Bengals coach Zac Taylor made it clear the team isn’t happy with the league changing the rules.
“We just want the rules to be followed,” Taylor said. “When a game is canceled, you turn to winning percentage to clarify everything, so we don’t have to make up the rules. There’s several instances this season when the club is fined, or people in our building are fined, and we’re told to follow the rules. It’s black and white. It’s in the rule book.”
Rich McKay, the NFL competition committee chairman, said the teams had some input in the process.