The NFL announced on Tuesday that the postponed “Monday Night Football” game between the Buffalo Bills and the Cincinnati Bengals will not be resumed this week.
A report from NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero says the NFL commissioner Roger Goodell spoke with both teams and the NFLPA before coming to the decision.
The NFL currently has made no decision on whether the game will resume at a later date, too.
Monday night’s game was paused in the first quarter and then postponed after Bills defender Damar Hamlin suffered a cardiac arrest and was transported to a local hospital.
As of this writing, this means no changes to the Week 18 schedule. That means, for now, the Bengals remain scheduled to play the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday, January 8 in Cincinnati — the time of kickoff, however, was tied to Monday night’s result, so that’s to-be-decided. Buffalo plays the Patriots that same day.
Resuming Monday’s game this week was one of two reported rescheduling options. The other is tacking another week onto the season and pushing everything else back. Whether the NFL decides to do so remains to be seen. There were many playoff seeding and divisional implications at stake and calling off the game or declaring it a tie would have an impact on percentages in those areas, but those are unimportant now and the human element of whether the teams want to resume the game will presumably play a big role in any dramatic schedule shifts.
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.
The NFL has made no decision regarding the possible resumption of the game at a later date.
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) January 3, 2023
