The NFL will not resume the Buffalo Bills-Cincinnati Bengals game from Monday that was suspended due to the medical emergency involving Bills safety Damar Hamlin, the NFL announced Thursday.
“Making the decision prior to Week 18 is consistent with our competitive principles and enables all clubs to know the playoff possibilities prior to playing the final weekend of regular-season games,” the NFL statement said.
There will be a Special League Meeting on Friday to decide contingencies for the playoff field in the AFC. The following proposal will be considered:
The AFC Championship game 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.
With the AFC playoff field seeded by winning percentage, the Kansas City Chiefs (13-3) would clinch the No. 1 seed, and a bye, with a win against the Las Vegas Raiders on Saturday.
“We know whatever scenario we have to go play to try to win the football game,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid said Wednesday. “That’s what we have to do. That’s what we’re going to do.”
The Bills (12-3) and Bengals (11-4) would then earn the No. 2 or No. 3 seed based on results from this week and play in a Wild Card Round game. Either had potential to be the No. 1 seed.
The Bengals and Baltimore Ravens (10-6) play Sunday in a game that could have the decided the AFC North winner. Because the Bengals and Ravens will now not play an equal number of games, how to decide their playoff matchups will be considered as follows:
If Baltimore defeats Cincinnati, and if those two clubs are scheduled to play a Wild Card game against one another, the site for that game would be determined by a coin toss. If Cincinnati wins the Week 18 game, or if Baltimore and Cincinnati are not scheduled to play one another in the Wild Card Round, the game sites would be determined by the regular scheduling procedures.
“We’ll let those decisions take place among those who want to make them,” Bengals coach Zac Taylor told ESPN. “All that is really in front of us right now is to get ready for Baltimore on Sunday.”
Buffalo, which has clinched the AFC East, plays the New England Patriots.
An Associated Press report earlier Thursday raised the idea of adding an eighth team to the playoffs in each conference, and giving the top two teams in the AFC and NFC a bye, rather than just the No. 1 seed.
“As we considered the football schedule, our principles have been to limit disruption across the league and minimize competitive inequities,” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said. “I recognize that there is no perfect solution. The proposal we are asking the ownership to consider, however, addresses the most significant potential equitable issues created by the difficult, but necessary, decision not to play the (Bills-Bengals) game under these extraordinary circumstances.”
Damar Hamlin went into cardiac arrest in the first quarter Monday. Hamlin is showing “substantial improvement,” doctors at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center said Thursday, according to ESPN.
