The NFL is expected to cancel the contest between the Buffalo Bills and Cincinnati Bengals. After Bills safety Damar Hamlin collapsed on the field, needing CPR and transport to the hospital, players and coaches opted to call off the game for the night.
On Thursday morning, the Bills provided another update on Hamlin’s condition, saying he has made “remarkable improvement” and appears to be “neurologically intact.”
After that update, doctors reported that Hamlin was awake and alert and had “held many people’s hands.”
While he is still critically ill, he was able to communicate in writing. His first question to doctors was, “Did we win?”
With the positive news on Hamlin, some of the attention has shifted to how the league will handle the game and playoff ramifications of two teams who were vying for the No. 1 seed in the AFC.
Adam Schefter of ESPN reported Thursday that with the league likely to call Bills-Bengals no contest, there are a few options being examined as to how to handle the playoff seeding.
Had the Bills beat the Bengals and won in Week 18, they would have been the No. 1 seed. If they’d lost and the Chiefs won in Week 18 against the Raiders, the Chiefs would be the No. 1 seed. The Bengals would have needed a win over the Bills and win over the Ravens and Chiefs loss in Week 18 to claim the top seed.
So, with the Bills and Bengals likely to have one less game played than everyone else, Schefter posited two options.
The first was suggested from his ESPN colleague, Matt Hasselbeck. Schefter confirmed it had been discussed by the league.
“The number one seed gets the choice of home field throughout the playoffs, or the bye,” Schefter said. “The number two seed gets whatever isn’t chosen. So either a bye or home field advantage. That would be one scenario that I believe the league has talked about.”
The other option sounded more likely.
“The other one that I think might be even more viable and more discussed, and might be the one that the league enacts before Saturday’s game is this,” Schefter said. “If there is an AFC championship game in the end, that involves teams that don’t have the same amount of games played, where Monday night’s non-result factors into who gets home-field advantage, here’s what I think the league would do: I think the league would say we’re not going to have any home field advantage this year. We’re going to play the conference championship game on a neutral site.”
That would involve a matchup between the Bills or Chiefs or Bengals.
Also under consideration, per Pro Football Talk, is the potential addition of an eighth seed.
It’s evident that with Hamlin now responsive, the league has re-focused on figuring out how to handle this unprecedented situation and is considering a multitude of options.