On such short notice, there especially was never going to be a perfect solution to seeding the AFC playoffs. After Damar Hamlin went into cardiac arrest on Monday night — eventually leading to the league cancelling Bills-Bengals outright — that left a mess on the football field for the league to try and make every AFC contender as happy as possible.
Unfortunately, by taking a game off the docket (an entirely reasonable solution), some had to make more sacrifices than others. In this case, should the NFL’s proposal pass through on Friday, it will be the Bengals — who won’t have a guaranteed home playoff game despite winning their second-straight AFC North title. (Fate, in the form of a coin toss, might be in their cards!)
