What should the NFL do about Week 18? Move it back one week?

[tjforce]

Originally Posted by glen87

FOXBORO — As football fans across the country continue to offer their support and best wishes to Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin, the NFL has provided clarity on the status of the Week 18 schedule — including the Bills game with the New England Patriots scheduled for Sunday.

The NFL announced Tuesday that while the Bills-Cincinnati Bengals game would not resume "this week", the remainder of next weekend's will proceed as planned. The Patriots will face the Bills Sunday at 1 p.m. in Highmark Stadium.

As long as Hamlin is still with us, I assume the Bills give their players the option of playing if they feel up to it. No shame if someone isn't ready to play.

If things go south between now and then, all bets are off.

[sethc1020]

Originally Posted by marinocollector

Cincy was in the lead.
Bills player was hurt.
Teams mutually agreed to end the game.
Seems like a forfeit by the Bills.

This scenario is basically what I based my opinion on earlier and think is the most logical outcome of all this.

[Bowman1951]

Originally Posted by glen87

FOXBORO — As football fans across the country continue to offer their support and best wishes to Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin, the NFL has provided clarity on the status of the Week 18 schedule — including the Bills game with the New England Patriots scheduled for Sunday.

The NFL announced Tuesday that while the Bills-Cincinnati Bengals game would not resume "this week", the remainder of next weekend's will proceed as planned. The Patriots will face the Bills Sunday at 1 p.m. in Highmark Stadium.

Great to hear! I don't want anyone just skating into the playoffs, but it's still going to be tough for them to go out there and perform. Unless they are so fired up for Hamlin that they destroy the Pats because of it.....especially with it in Buffalo.

[sethc1020]

Originally Posted by Fenway55

The League is not going to declare a winner of a game that was 7-3 and didn't even play 10 minutes. They may simply not play the game, leaving each team with 16 games, but there is no way they give Cincy a win after 9 minutes of action..

The public outrage over punishing Buffalo over the fact that one of their players almost died would be immense.

Personally I disagree and think it is a very real possibility because this is an unprecedented circumstance and the gravity of the circumstance.

[Bowman1951]

Originally Posted by NeedChapmans

but it also screws Miami and Pittsburgh out of a chance to make the playoffs.

This one I have a lot tougher time showing any sympathy for. Don't lose to a division rival so late in the season (Dolphins) and don't start the season 2-6 where you have to rely on other teams to squeak in (Steelers).

[Brwdot]

Simple. Make the Ravens/Bengals game the division winner. Sucks for the Bengals, but they still control their own fate. If the Bengals win & the Bills win vs Patriots, give the bye to the Bills as the Bengals would likely be sitting all of their starters in a re match. Sucks for the Chiefs, but its the most fair way to solve a horrible situation.

The only scenario where the game would potentially have value in playing is if the Bengals lose to the Ravens and the Bills win versus the Patriots. Then in a perfect world the Bengals would get a chance to beat the Bills for the AFC North win. But no one is going to be happy, but when Zac Taylor walked over and the two teams decided to choose integrity over playing the game, the Bengals cannot be too upset with the outcome of this game game deciding everything.

[gmarutiak]

Originally Posted by Bowman1951

I'm starting to think even Buffalo's game against the Patriots this Sunday is in jeopardy.

They are already a lock for the playoffs, why not just forfeit last night's game as well as this one coming up? They can then get everyone "right" as much as they can.....and focus on the upcoming playoff game, and screw the seed?

What if the Bills players aren’t mentally prepared to play until the middle of February? Do they automatically get to play in the Super Bowl?

[NeedChapmans]

Originally Posted by Bowman1951

This one I have a lot tougher time showing any sympathy for. Don't lose to a division rival so late in the season (Dolphins) and don't start the season 2-6 where you have to rely on other teams to squeak in (Steelers).

Pittsburgh and Miami both had to travel to Buffalo and take an L ... would be awfully nice to just wash away the toughest game of the year for NE and let them in. At least they'd avoid the chance of duplucating the dumbest play in NFL history.

[boxbuster7]

Originally Posted by NeedChapmans

Pittsburgh and Miami both had to travel to Buffalo and take an L ... would be awfully nice to just wash away the toughest game of the year for NE and let them in. At least they'd avoid the chance of duplucating the dumbest play in NFL history.

Are you referencing the rhamondre stevenson fumble?

[NeedChapmans]

Originally Posted by boxbuster7

Are you referencing the rhamondre stevenson fumble?

Ohhh no. The lateral in LV.

[oplum29]

Originally Posted by Brwdot

Simple. Make the Ravens/Bengals game the division winner. Sucks for the Bengals, but they still control their own fate. If the Bengals win & the Bills win vs Patriots, give the bye to the Bills as the Bengals would likely be sitting all of their starters in a re match. Sucks for the Chiefs, but its the most fair way to solve a horrible situation.

this makes no sense.

say the Ravens beat Cincy, both teams now have 11 wins. Bengals are 11-5, Ravens are 11-6.

Bills win, they are 13-3, Chiefs win, they finish 14-3.

how are you going to reward the Bills with a bye over a 14-win KC team? and i know what happened is tragic, but no team is going to be okay with giving up:

1- a bye week
2- homefield through out the playoffs

also, whoever is the 2 seed, by far, has the toughest road to go through. not so much the Wild Card game, but the divisional game, because now you're looking at playing Cincy and then having to go on the road to either KC or Buffalo for the AFC title game.

you can't flip a coin, a tie isn't fair to the rest of the conference (as has been discussed before), and you can't reward a win-loss based on 1 quarter of a game.

i think the only logical outcome is to forget this game, play Week 18, and see if you need that Cincy-Bills game to determine seeding/division titles. if you do, which you honestly are going to need, push that game to Thursday (playoffs start Saturday), and then have the Bills-Bengals outcome play out on the following Monday.

say Bengals win that "Week 19" game played on Thursday, so now Bills get the 2, they play Monday night or maybe even Tuesday. Same with the Bengals.

[dkcardman]

The NFL knows there is no time to play this game. They are likely going back and forth as we speak discussing and negotiating this with all affected parties, teams, broadcasters, player orgs and whomever controls ticket sales for possible refunds. A lot for them to iron out. But this game isnt going to be finished. Zero chance they move the playoffs as that is logistically untenable. Its either going to be a Bills forfeit, or they dont count the game at all against either record and they finish the year playing just 16 games.
Its probably a good thing that the outcome is not released as it likely means that the NFL is actually listening to all parties and trying to come to a mutual agreement rather than simply dictating the outcome without input.

[tjforce]

Originally Posted by oplum29

this makes no sense.

say the Ravens beat Cincy, both teams now have 11 wins. Bengals are 11-5, Ravens are 11-6.

Bills win, they are 13-3, Chiefs win, they finish 14-3.

how are you going to reward the Bills with a bye over a 14-win KC team? and i know what happened is tragic, but no team is going to be okay with giving up:

1- a bye week
2- homefield through out the playoffs

also, whoever is the 2 seed, by far, has the toughest road to go through. not so much the Wild Card game, but the divisional game, because now you're looking at playing Cincy and then having to go on the road to either KC or Buffalo for the AFC title game.

you can't flip a coin, a tie isn't fair to the rest of the conference (as has been discussed before), and you can't reward a win-loss based on 1 quarter of a game.

i think the only logical outcome is to forget this game, play Week 18, and see if you need that Cincy-Bills game to determine seeding/division titles. if you do, which you honestly are going to need, push that game to Thursday (playoffs start Saturday), and then have the Bills-Bengals outcome play out on the following Monday.

say Bengals win that "Week 19" game played on Thursday, so now Bills get the 2, they play Monday night or maybe even Tuesday. Same with the Bengals.

You are right on the first part.

The bottom part is tough. In that scenario, if the Bengals win, then 2 1st round games get pushed until Monday.

That being said, it might be the most fair, but do the Bengals/Bills even want to play in that game? I'll guess that the Bengals don't, since they are out of the running for the 1 seed, and all it would mean was jumping from 2 to 3 (as opposed to the tie/no contest situation)

[TSonn]

It's pretty fascinating that the NFL doesn't have a plan for a player death on the field.

[tjforce]

Originally Posted by dkcardman

The NFL knows there is no time to play this game. They are likely going back and forth as we speak discussing and negotiating this with all affected parties, teams, broadcasters, player orgs and whomever controls ticket sales for possible refunds. A lot for them to iron out. But this game isnt going to be finished. Zero chance they move the playoffs as that is logistically untenable. Its either going to be a Bills forfeit, or they dont count the game at all against either record and they finish the year playing just 16 games.
Its probably a good thing that the outcome is not released as it likely means that the NFL is actually listening to all parties and trying to come to a mutual agreement rather than simply dictating the outcome without input.

It's been my guess since last night that this game will never get finished.

It means someone gets screwed, but right now it's about making the best of a bad siutation.

[Bowman1951]

Originally Posted by NeedChapmans

Pittsburgh and Miami both had to travel to Buffalo and take an L ... would be awfully nice to just wash away the toughest game of the year for NE and let them in. At least they'd avoid the chance of duplucating the dumbest play in NFL history.

If Buffalo lost last night, they rest their starters next week and it's not exactly the "toughest game of the year" anymore because Allen/Diggs aren't playing all four quarters.

[Fenway55]

Originally Posted by sethc1020

Personally I disagree and think it is a very real possibility because this is an unprecedented circumstance and the gravity of the circumstance.

Just because the circumstances are grave doesn't mean you make the situation worse by unfairly giving one team a win they didn't deserve and another team a loss they didn't deserve.

I am starting to like my own idea more and more: Let Buffalo-Cincy play each other next week (Jan 13/14) and have the NFC playoffs start on time that same weekend. Then NFC takes a week off so AFC can have their first round the following weekend. The only teams who even remotely get hosed in that situation are the teams with the 1st round byes because they could potentially get too much rest.

[TSonn]

Originally Posted by Bowman1951

If Buffalo lost last night, they rest their starters next week and it's not exactly the "toughest game of the year" anymore because Allen/Diggs aren't playing all four quarters.

That's the piece that's being missed most everywhere - not having an outcome to BUF/CIN before week 18 puts a whole lot of other players at injury risk right before the playoffs when maybe they wouldn't even be out on the field week 18.

[hche]

Originally Posted by Asian62150

Both BUF and CIN would rather forfeit the game than play in the playoffs off a shortened week.

Easiest resolution is a tie. There's no time otherwise to fit the game in.

Otherwise, they can push back the entire playoffs 1 week to fit this game in. But that will give every other team more rest and they'll have to just get rid of the bye week prior to the Super Bowl.

Because they are definitely not rescheduling the SB.

As I said nothing is perfect. It is a logistic nightmare to move everything back a week. It may not be even possible.

[anusinha]

Originally Posted by TSonn

It's pretty fascinating that the NFL doesn't have a plan for a player death on the field.

The plan was to keep playing, that didnt go over well.

[Selanne00008]

Originally Posted by Fenway55

Just because the circumstances are grave doesn't mean you make the situation worse by unfairly giving one team a win they didn't deserve and another team a loss they didn't deserve.

I am starting to like my own idea more and more: Let Buffalo-Cincy play each other next week (Jan 13/14) and have the NFC playoffs start on time that same weekend. Then NFC takes a week off so AFC can have their first round the following weekend. The only teams who even remotely get hosed in that situation are the teams with the 1st round byes because they could potentially get too much rest.

I don’t mind this. Idk how realistic it is, or really, why it wouldn’t be. And also, you mention 1st round byes getting too much rest. But if that ends up being buffalo with a win, then it’s not even too much rest for them, just the nfc 1 seed.


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[hche]

Originally Posted by anusinha

The plan was to keep playing, that didnt go over well.

They did keep playing (at a later time) at Euro 2020. Given Christian Eriksen's condition was better than Hamlin's.

[2010GBPackers]

Caution: read this with an open mind or prepare to be "offended."

With all due respect to the events on Monday night, I hope that by Wednesday or Thursday, things have calmed down enough for people to make reasonable, rational, and appropriate decisions without the influence of emotion guiding everything.

As of now, this seems too dismissive of other teams' playoff situations with the only guiding principle being not to offend anyone. Look, the kid got severely injured and may still not make it. It sucks, 100%, but life doesn't just stop for one person or one situation forever. They were right to postpone the game, but for how long, forever? Their week 18 game, too? And yeah, folks are traumatized. But guess what? Hundreds of thousands of people live this reality every day of their life. Firefighters, EMT's, police, hospital workers, folks in the armed services - this happens every single day and they have to get back up and do it all over again. Day after day.

Hopefully, it gives us a little perspective of what they have to deal with on a daily basis. What was most notable to me last night was seeing the equipment guys packing all of the Bills' stuff up for transport back to Buffalo. They didn't get the night off, did they? And those folks work with the team for years and build relationships with the players too - often much longer than the average NFL player. I'd like to shine a little light on that discrepancy as well.

I'm just saying, there needs to be a bit of perspective here. Grace needs to be shown to the Bills and their organization - just not to the detriment of everyone else.

[Selanne00008]

Originally Posted by 2010GBPackers

Caution: read this with an open mind or prepare to be "offended."

With all due respect to the events on Monday night, I hope that by Wednesday or Thursday, things have calmed down enough for people to make reasonable, rational, and appropriate decisions without the influence of emotion guiding everything.

As of now, this seems too dismissive of other teams' playoff situations with the only guiding principle being not to offend anyone. Look, the kid got severely injured and may still not make it. It sucks, 100%, but life doesn't just stop for one person or one situation forever. They were right to postpone the game, but for how long, forever? Their week 18 game, too? And yeah, folks are traumatized. But guess what? Hundreds of thousands of people live this reality every day of their life. Firefighters, EMT's, police, hospital workers, folks in the armed services - this happens every single day and they have to get back up and do it all over again. Day after day.

Hopefully, it gives us a little perspective of what they have to deal with on a daily basis. What was most notable to me last night was seeing the equipment guys packing all of the Bills' stuff up for transport back to Buffalo. They didn't get the night off, did they? And those folks work with the team for years and build relationships with the players too - often much longer than the average NFL player. I'd like to shine a little light on that discrepancy as well.

I'm just saying, there needs to be a bit of perspective here. Grace needs to be shown to the Bills and their organization - just not to the detriment of everyone else.

That’s fair, but, what do you suggest then? That’s what we are all trying to collectively figure out here..


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[TSonn]

Seems like the NFL is hoping for the following situation:

• KC loss to LV
• BUF win over NE
• CIN and BAL tie

Then they can No Contest the CIN/BUF game and keep all playoff scheduling the same.

Not sure how they could force a tie but I'll be excited to watch them try.