Adam Schefter Sees Two Scenarios for How NFL Moves Forward From Canceled Bills-Bengals Game

ESPN’s NFL insider Adam Schefter on Thursday speculated that the postponed Buffalo Bills and the Cincinnati Bengals game would not be picked back up, a theory that appears to have been proved true later in the afternoon after the AP reported via sources the league has made that decision.

Schefter’s commentary expanded from the question of whether it would continue to explain the scenarios he thinks are possible, assuming the game is not continued, for how it will play out.

The NFL postponed Monday night’s game between the Bills and the Bengals after Bills safety Damar Hamlin collapsed on the field after going into cardiac arrest. He received CPR and was rushed to a local Cincinnati hospital, where he was intubated and listed in critical condition. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell sent a memo noting there would be no immediate resuming the game this week.

On Thursday, Hamlin’s first question during his remarkable recovery was whether or not they won the game. But as the AP reported, that will not be something ultimately decided.

ESPN’s Schefter was a guest on First Take earlier in the day and predicted the NFL’s decision would be what the AP reported Thursday afternoon: That the game will not be continued or replayed, but cancelled.

“As somebody said to me this past week, the game is bad mojo; it’s time to leave it behind,” he said. “Move forward, not back.”

Since both the Bills and Bengals were competing for the number one seed in the NFL’s American Football Conference (AFC), Schefter detailed how the league could continue the season without the two teams playing in 17 games, compared to the other 30 teams who will. One scenario came from ESPN’s Matt Hasselback, and he thought the game should be labeled as a tie.

“He said you call the Bengals-Bills a tie,” Schefter said while he read from his phone. “The number one seed gets the choice of home field throughout the playoffs or the bye. The number two seed gets whatever isn’t chosen.”

Schefter “believed” the NFL had discussed the first scenario of having the one seed choose between home field or receiving the first-round bye. The bye week is only rewarded to the top seed in each conference. Schefter thinks the league is leaning toward a conference championship game at a neutral site.

“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 will do,” Schefter continued. “I think the league would say, ‘we’re not gonna have any home-field advantage this year. We’re gonna play the conference game on a neutral site.'”

Seung Min Kim of the AP reported that the game was canceled. She wrote in a tweet:

NFL won’t resume Bills-Bengals game suspended Monday night after Damar Hamlin went into cardiac arrest.

Watch above via ESPN.

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