If I'm reading everything correctly, I don't think that's even an option. They can only "call" a game if it's pretty obvious what the outcome will be (like if Cincy was up by 28 in the middle of the 4th quarter).

From my perspective, the options are (in order of what I personally think is most and least likely):

1. Resume the game tomorrow night and probably bump the Bengals and Bills games next weekend to Monday (or maybe even Tuesday).
2. The game is cancelled entirely, which would result in a "no contest." Both teams would finish the season with 16 games, and seeding would be determined by win percentage. (This is effectively a tie, but I don't see a way they would actually award it as such since a tie requires a game to have been played.)
3. The Bills are offered the chance to resume the game and choose to forfeit, which would result in a W for Cincy and a L for the Bills.
4. They push the entire post-season out a week. Everyone plays next weekend as scheduled, and the Bengals and Bills play alone in "week 19."

You just lost 1000000000000000000000 Twitter cred.

You lose

I just don't get this rational.

So instead of just letting the final score of 7-3 be the final score, you would rather completely re-design the entire NFL playoff system for it? That seems like over correction.

Simple to play the game, if not then 7-3 Bengals win, businesss as usual.

But does Denver have a chance?

If the players decided to quit the game then it's a forfeit on both their parts. I would not make up the game if I were the league and the record is the record as a no contest. No loss, no win, no tie, and we are moving on except to pay respect to the the player.

Maybe that's possible, I haven't studied every playoff scenario. Still a weird post nonetheless.

They’re nine games back(10 counting the tiebreaker) so Russ might still have time to do some last minute cooking.

I heard he's been doing jumping jacks on the plane so there's that.

Yep, it is pretty simple. If you're Goodell you call both clubs and say look there are too many implications on this game and no easy way to resolve it so we are scheduling the game for Wednesday. If the Bills want to forfeit they can, else they play and we get an outcome.

Easy.

and that gives the Chiefs a bye and an advantage...doesn't work

I don't think the game was decided by any stretch of any imagination. Would the Bills have gone for it on 4th down from the 5 (?) had they known the game was on the line? Absolutely.

It's not remotely business as usual to stop a game midway through the first quarter and take that result as having indicated anything.

That's just not true. The dishes are done.

I wouldn't I would say the Chiefs should take the L so they don't have to play 2 games in 4 days right before the playoffs after a traumatic injury, oh and they still might not get a bye. It just makes sense....

Would the anti-trust law that essentially prohibits NFL games from being played on Saturdays in direct competition with college football games apply if the Bills/Faketriots and Cincy/Ravens Week 18 games are moved to Monday, the same date as the College Football National Championship Game?

They would either have to play the NFL games during the afternoon or only in a small regional broadcast at night?

I find it odd it's noon east coast time and no decision has been made yet

I thought Van Pelt and Clark were good last night.
But now guys like Stephen A, Foxworth and Spears have gone moronic. Foxworth on a soapbox about making the game more safe and players need to be compensated more because they put their bodies and lives on the line each week. **** off.

There are people who do that every day of their lives knowing the inherent risks of their occupations and do so in good faith. Last night was tragic and call it what it was – a fluke occurrence. For these clowns to hedge ”woe is me” for playing a game that they choose to play is just reprehensible.

Hoping for the best regarding Hamlin and a full recovery.

Probably waiting for some good news to drop on Hamlin before making the announcement.

That's what I'm thinking. How do you tell the Bills they have to play, when they haven't heard whether their teammate is expected to make a recovery or not.

they might not know that for days or weeks

go out and play and get it over with

if you can't, you don't have to play

the world doesn't stop for days on end because someone goes to the hospital

It's probably too hard to make that determination yet. The games need to be played.

Agreed. What happened sucks, but life goes on and you can't hold a multibillion dollar industry hostage over it. Play the game this week or forfeit the game. Period. Obviously in the world we now inhabit there will be tons of backlash against it, but these guys get paid a lot of money to do their jobs, so they should do their jobs or pay the price.

So many of these guys like to think of themselves as warriors. Well, warriors don't stop fighting because one guy goes down.

They are probably worried a little about the optics of whatever they decide.
People will be outraged no matter what they do.

It surely wasn't decided on the field, nope. I am just saying given the circumstances it comes down to you can effect the entire league or just the two teams playing. I look at it like a freak accident that unfortunately happened to the Bills, no different that if your QB goes down or another key player and you lose the game. Is it unfair to the Bills? Yes, but give them the option to play tomorrow night and if they do not then the the record should stand as it is. Seems much simpler and the least unfair thing to all parties.

That I think is an easier path forward than changing the entire playoff dynamic. There would be so many more questions doing that than the former.

I'm sure the league is waiting as long as they possibly can before announcing a decision.

Announcing the game is rescheduled to Thursday only to have an announcement of a negative prognosis an hour later would cause a feeding frenzy and possibly draw into question their decision to play it at all.

There are more dangerous professions that pay far, far less than the average NFL salary.

Dumbasses.

Nevermind that this likely had nothing to do with what occurred in the game.

this situation is a bandaid that needs to be ripped off

For sure, I know one thing is that there is silence on this then the more likely its just a no game happened and goes to win percentage. They are running out of time.

Sadly, it’s not unexpected to hear all the self-serving pontification when tragedies like this happen. There are people that don’t truly understand the import of “Don’t let a good crisis go to waste.” Now is not the time for virtue signaling. The echo chamber is going to get louder until the next news cycle.

Sadly, this is the truth. A number of years ago, my boss died of an aneurysm during a meeting with 4-5 people at work. I was out of the office for my grandfather’s funeral, but I got a call from a co-worker. It was a chaotic scene for everyone in the department. The company allowed our department to go home for the day, but everyone had to go back to work the next day.

When Darryl Kile died, the Cardinals didnt play that day but were back at it the next.

For sure but they have to put the ball in the Bills’ court ultimately. Give them the option to play the game this week and if they don’t take it, you tell the media/fans that you respect the Bills players’ choice not to play and you move on with the rest of the season after a forfeit/no contest.

Exactly. Certainly their hearts weren't in it, but they moved on and did their jobs.

Yep, especially given that there have been serious injuries before and games have resumed that night. I know this was a bit more serious than some but there have been some very serious/ gruesome ones (including a murder suicide in there) and I am not going to be the judge on which one results in we stop a game for. I will leave that to the league but certainly there is argument for precedent that the game must be played.

They have to play or forfeit.

I can't imagine the NFL doesn't have some sort of tentative plan, having been in constant communication with the Bills and Bengals, along with any other teams whose games could have a potential impact (Patriots and Ravens being the most obvious).

Everyone else (fans, networks, stadium personnel, etc) can make necessary adjustments on a much shorter time frame.

LMAO

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Radical thought but what if the <a href="https://twitter.com/NFL?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@NFL</a> credited both Cincy and Buffalo with a win? I know KC wouldn’t like it but at first glance it looks like that would keep all 3 teams in the mix for the 1-seed going into week 18. Seems way better than making anyone resume that game.</p>&mdash; Dave Benz (@davebenz) <a href="https://twitter.com/davebenz/status/1610149276533010433?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 3, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Participation trophies and orange slices for everyone!

ROFL

I think you have that just about ass backwards.

Your talking about people who have to make travel arrangements, work arrangements, hotel arrangements, childcare, homecare, etc while they're gone. Then you're talking about networks and network scheduling, contracts, announcement and tv schedules, not to mention travel arrangements for those teams.

I doubt cancelling, moving games is as easy as you are making it out to be.

Oh yeah, I’m sure that idea will go over great with every other owner in playoff contention.

Reschedule it to week 19 and start the game from where it was suspended.

Having the Bengals play on Wednesday night and then again early Sunday for what could be the #1 seed is unfair.

LMAO on his profile.

Winners NEVER Quit... Quitters NEVER Win!

ROFL

Yes and everyone gets a home game and a set of car keys under every seat.

Who says life ain't fair?

v

I guess my point is, in the grand scheme the NFL probably doesn't care as much about the fans who will be out of luck because of travel issues and have to either eat tickets or cancel plans. I assume there might even be an option for teams to refund fans who can't make the new game, and then offer those up on the resale market. Where it's more about logisitcs for getting the teams where they need to be and when to make the game happen.

Except the Chiefs. It’s totally cool to screw them.

Chiefs canceled their media availability today but are practicing.

Wednesday Night Game - Bills v Bengals

Week 18 - All games scheduled as is except:

Sunday 4pm (instead of noon) - Give them 4 more hours.
Ravens - Bengals
New England - Bills
Jets - Dolphins

Essentially the difference between playing Sun - Thur

Houston Texans cancelling their walkthrough today (to help secure the #1 overall pick and lose this Sunday).

If they deem it 'no contest,' the entire universe is going to be rooting for us to lose to the Raiders.

If CP were ever looking for a referendum on NFL's being rigged, this game would be it. It's everything BlackOp has dreamed of since he was a tadpole.

If the resume the game, would either team be allowed to make any roster moves prior? Or would they be forced to use the exact players they had active prior to the game?

I would think they’d be stuck with the same rosters, right?

I hope so. I'm just waiting for this all to bite us in the @ss. I know it was early in the game last night but it sure felt like the Bengals were gonna win it.

I don’t give a **** how we get the number 1 seed

Would it be much cooler if FitzMagic was making Tom Brady cry? Sure, but whatever our team has worked ****ing hard for its record and they deserve it

Not all that far fetched. Its solves an issue, on the field of play, rather easily. The refs suck and Ive seen too many bad calls decide games. Sorry, I just dont trust the NFL.:shrug:

btw people who keep saying WIN % seem to be forgetting Ravens.........

They still could have won the division.

BlackOp HAS to start the GDT if that happens.

Smart.

Does Buffalo fan really think we want to get the #1 seed through forfeit or tie?

Who cares what they think, I would have rather they lost. But Chiefs have worked hard to be in this position to get the 1 seed all year.

Nobody here would say no, but I'd rather actually just watch a high level Bills/Bengals game actually get played. I think everyone would.

If that's not an option, it certainly shouldn't be the Chiefs who get penalized for it.

I'm ok taking the 1 seed if they choose to forfeit.

I still think they would.

But now every fan, ref, and PR specialist in the NFL will want Buffalo to. I'll say this: I think the NFL will be very aware of what stankstorm might brew if anything even a tad sideways happens to the highly emotional Bills fanbase in the weeks to come.

Exactly, we all wish they'd lost.

The scenarios that twobillsdrive posters are putting forward are absolutely preposterous. Pure insanity.

Play the damn game and move forward. It sucks but take the emotion out of it. We ALL want Hamlin to get better, but playing a game isn't going to change his condition.

Yes. For sure.

How would you guys feel if the Bills/Bengals game were decided by a coin flip (which as it happens is part of the tie-breaking procedure)?

I'd personally have no issue with that. I felt it was a coin flip going in. I'd rather potentially lose the 1 seed with a coin flip than get it by a no-contest ruling, but I'm sure a lot of people here will think that's an idiotic take.

This might sound cruel or awful but at the end of the day the show must go on. I get not playing last night out of respect for what happened, but sadly people die every day and not are old retirees. Their companies and businesses continue on as they should regardless of whether they died or were in the hospital in critical condition. You grieve, mourn, pray, and move on. Life can’t stop for one person and while the Bills players are struggling, they can only deal with it for so long. They need to push forward and play the game or deal with the consequences for not doing so (taking the L).

I think them playing tomorrow with their final game being next Tuesday is the best solution at this point. Forfeiting the game, giving both teams a loss or tie, or allowing them to only play 16 and seeding based off win % is just silly and not fair to anyone. Don’t know Hamlin, but I can’t imagine he would want any of those scenarios.

o:-)

To be honest,

He knew the risks when he signed up for it (This is whats said about officers etc)

Philosophically, I wouldn't mind that, but it makes no sense to me from a policy and precedent standpoint.

My PREFERRED way of winning the 1 seed is for them the play the game and have the Bengals win. But if that's not an option, no contest is the only logical option to me. If this happened in week 1, everyone would be fine with that. It's only controversial because we know the specific impacts on the playoff race. But the reality is that a tie in week 1 would have the same impact as a tie in week 17, so it's hard to be comfortable with super convoluted solutions that are only in play because it's so late in the season.

wow

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">After speaking with both teams and NFLPA leadership, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell informed the clubs today that the Bills-Bengals game will not be resumed this week.<br><br>The NFL has made no decision regarding the possible resumption of the game at a later date.</p>&mdash; Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) <a href="https://twitter.com/TomPelissero/status/1610342116365946881?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 3, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">NFL says Bengals-Bills will not be resumed this week.</p>&mdash; Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) <a href="https://twitter.com/MySportsUpdate/status/1610341918931619841?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 3, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

I'm legitimately surprised by this.

Well said

Yeah, that actually makes a lot of sense.

I kinda hate being 'handed' the 1 seed in this fashion but I fully understand and think - if they're not going to play the game (which would absolutely 1000% be preferred) - your way of viewing it is spot on.

Then Buffalo forfeits the game.

The NFL season cannot be held up for one player.

And the show will inevitably go on. The NFL can't continue with this media discourse for very long. All it leads to is further discussions about just how dangerous/risky this sport actually is.

I'm a bit surprised they haven't actually announced anything about moving forward at this point. I would assume that will come at some point before day's end.

So I'm assuming its a forfeit, there is ZERO percent chance the NFL can reschedule all of these games or push playoffs back.

Its a logistical nightmare and a contractual one with TV providers as well.

Punting the decision till after this weekend.

Sent from my SM-S906U1 using Tapatalk

So basically the NFL thinks the PR would be too negative.

If they DO play the game at all, the NFL will give it its own slot and make a spectacle out of it.

The Goodell way, wait till he suspends himself for three weeks to get away from the decision making

And there it is. Given the massive logistical headache that would be rescheduling this game between the end of Week 18 and the playoffs, I'm thinking it just doesn't get played now.

Seeing if we lose and they can not worry about it?

And if the Ravens lose.