The NFL has made the decision to cancel the Bills-Bengals game that was postponed on Monday night, according to the Associated Press.
The two teams played for nearly nine minutes before the game was stopped after Bills safety Damar Hamlin went into cardiac arrest on the field. After being given CPR, Hamlin was taken by ambulance to the University of Cincinnati Medical center, where he’s been listed in critical condition for the past three days.
The only thing on the NFL’s mind over the past 72 hours has been the health of Hamlin, which has improved remarkably over the past 24 hours. Two members of Hamlin’s medical team held a press conference on Thursday and revealed that not only is he moving both his arms and legs, but he’s also been able to communicate through writing with friends and family. (He even asked who won the Bills-Bengals game while communicating with a nurse on Wednesday night.)
With Hamlin’s health improving, the next step for the NFL was to decide how to move forward with the Bills-Bengals game. The NFL could have moved the game to next weekend, but that would have impacted the playoff schedule, so the league decided that cancelling it would be the easiest thing to do.
Although cancelling the game was arguably the easiest solution, it still creates several issues.
If the league sticks to its standard playoff format following the cancellation, all playoff seedings would be decided by winning percentage, which would be good for the Bengals, but bad for the Bills. In this case, the cancellation would give the AFC North title to the Bengals before they even take the field against Baltimore on Sunday.
Here’s a quick look at the biggest ramifications from the cancellation if the NFL sticks to its standard format for deciding playoff teams:
Chiefs in the driver’s seat for the No. 1 seed. The Bills (12-3) were in a spot to clinch the No. 1 overall seed…..
