[MUSIC PLAYING]
CHRIS BUMBACA: The NFL's decision
to cancel the Monday night game between the Cincinnati Bengals
and Buffalo Bills after Bills' safety Damar
Hamlin collapsed has seating and playoff
implications, obviously.
Here are the main takeaways.
The first thing is that there is now the possibility
of a neutral site AFC championship game depending
on the outcomes of the three week eight team games
that the Bengals, Bills, and Chiefs will participate in.
If Kansas City and Buffalo both win,
it will be a neutral site AFC championship game.
The only way that either team can clinch home field
advantage, despite having the number one seat,
is if they win and the other team loses.
Then you get the Bengals involved.
They could force a neutral side AFC championship game
against Kansas City if they win on Sunday against the Ravens
and the Chiefs and Bills both lose their matchups.
This obviously is not a perfect solution,
but the reality is that two teams are going to be playing
less games than the others.
And for the players, this is something
that they realize is really out of their control
and they're just going to do the job in front of them.
Here's where it gets really interesting
and it involves a coin flip, potentially.
If Cincinnati loses to Baltimore, meaning a Ravens'
season sweep, and the Chargers win,
the site of a Bengals-Ravens wild card
match-up that would be the 3-6 game
would be determined by a coin flip.
How did the league arrive at this point?
There is a long list of tie-breaking procedures, all
of these different mechanisms that
can separate teams as they are trying to determine
the final playoff spots.
And number 11, the last one on that list, is a coin toss.
And again, this is all extremely secondary to the health
of Damar Hamilton, and it's been awesome to see
positive updates there.
And that's really what the players
care about more so than standings
and who gets to play where.
[MUSIC FADING]