As uncomfortable as it is, there are next steps and there are many questions on how the league proceeds. The league’s policy manuals and governing documents give NFL commissioner Roger Goodell the ultimate authority to determine what happens to the suspended game.
Despite all of the contingencies that were documented in advance, Goodell is in uncharted territory. According to Quirky Research, no NFL game has been suspended and resumed at a later date. (Preseason games have been terminated early or canceled outright, and regular season games through the years have been rescheduled prior to kickoff.)
The league’s Gameday Operations Manual states the following:
Games should be suspended, cancelled, postponed, or terminated … when circumstances exist such that commencement or continuation of play would pose a threat to the safety of participants or spectators or would unduly affect the ability of a community to deal with the effects of a local catastrophe or similarly disruptive event.
In determining whether a game should be rescheduled or relocated, public safety, community relations, and competitive integrity should be key determining factors. …
Authority to cancel, postpone, or terminate games is vested solely in the Commissioner. … If possible, the Commissioner’s-office representative should consult with authorized representatives of the two participating clubs before any decision involving cancellation, postponement, or termination is made by the Commissioner.
Rule 17 in the NFL rulebook contains much of the same general information on resuming a suspended game.
The policies do outline a few things the commissioner cannot do. He cannot unilaterally declare a forfeit, and he essentially lacks any authority to do so except in a very limited circumstance of a team refusing to take the field. This game in particular cannot be terminated early, because games may only be terminated if “it is reasonable to project that its resumption (a) would not change its ultimate result or (b) would not adversely affect any other inter-team competitive issue.” The playoff seedings are definitely affected by the outcome of this game. Similarly, the commissioner cannot outright cancel the game — nullify everything from the game and have it uncontested — except as a last resort, which wouldn’t apply here. Some have also suggested that the game be declared a tie. There is no provision for the commissioner to do so, and the half-win in the standings also presents the “inter-team competitive issue” that the league would avoid.
Essentially all of the guidance forges a clear path to completing the game as soon as possible. The Bills buses departed Cincinnati early Tuesday morning local time, so a Tuesday night game would have been the least disruptive, but it is out of the question. The policy manuals state that “for regular-season postponements, the Commissioner will make every effort to set the game for no later than two days after its originally scheduled date and at the same site.” This provision was adhered to as close as possible during the 2020 and 2021 seasons due to coronavirus outbreaks, but there were several concessions that had to be made. Not a single game was lost in either season.
In the end, the game was suspended because the shock and the intense humanity of the situation was overwhelming. That was the right call to make for Monday night. But, despite Hamlin’s path to recovery, the reality is that the game has to be played no matter what. The Bengals fans are aware of this, as their team took the field two days after receiver Chris Henry died in 2009.
One possible remedy is to push the playoffs out one week and removing the week off prior to the Super Bowl so that the Bills and Chiefs would play a “Week 19” game. While that seems easy, it creates potential network conflicts by moving the playoff games that air in primetime slots. The extra week was a possibility during the 2020 season, but the league did several schedule moves to avoid doing that.
When the playoffs are scheduled, the league will not place a team in a game with less than 6 days’ rest. When introducing the Monday night wild card game in 2021, that meant that a team could not play that game and then be scheduled for a Saturday divisional playoff game. There could be some quick changes to the Ravens-Bengals and Patriots-Bills games to move them up to Friday, resuming the suspended game on Tuesday, and scheduling one or two wild card games (as needed, depending if the Bills clinch the #1 seed) on Monday.
While there are very few options to schedule a resumption of the game, not scheduling a resumption of the game seems to be very unlikely. However, if the game is not resumed, standings for the playoff seeds would be calculated on win percentage as usual. Any statistics that would affect a player’s contracted performance bonus or position in the statistical rankings would be prorated to 16 games.
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Bills/ Bengals [cancelled - process in OP]
(https://chiefsplanet.com/BB/showthread.php?t=346826)