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I don't know what the Bills and Chiefs gripes are, but my gripe with the Bengals is the actual rules state this game with the Ravens on Sunday shouldn't matter for the division and the league's concocted this home field coin toss scenario should the Ravens win, which means the Bengals actually have to go all out in the game, something they could've avoided by beating Buffalo on Monday. Through no fault of their own they were robbed of the chance to clinch home field in the wildcard, robbed of controlling their destiny for the two seed, AND Baltimore was given this extra credit. That'd be fine if we got the same treatment extending up the standings in regards to a potential meeting with the Chiefs and Bills. If that's how it played out we would have the exact same relationship in that scenario as the Bengals-Ravens do now, but if we all win and then go to Buffalo and KC in the second round they said "LOL tough sh** No coin toss. Go to Buffalo. We hate you." That inconsistent logic manages to the Bengals going up and going down. It's the inconsistency that pisses me off the most.

I'm not worried about the mental state of either team, especially now that Hamlin's pulled through and has spoken to his teammates and a few of the Bengals visited him in the hospital. I could see palpable relief in interviews when it was announced that Hamlin was going to be alright. I think the Bills are going to be motivated to "win for Damar" and will blow out the Pats (also because I don't think very highly of this Patriots team) and I think the Bengals are now pissed off by the royal shaft the NFL stuck them with and this group seems to play well when they have an extra chip on their shoulders.

If you can't declare a winner or loser because the game wasn't far enough along you also can't declare it a tie. I don't think it's too much to ask to just use the rules they already had on the books for No Contest decisions. I do think it's funny that after two years of people saying "I hate how the records look with the 17 game schedule" we're going to get two, old fashioned, aesthetically pleasing 16 game season records like we all know and love. Related: Is Roger Goodell still with us? A player in his league nearly dies and he hasn't appeared on camera at all to make a statement at all. I don't expect a lot of that guy because I know who signs his checks, but come on. Pretend like you're running the country's biggest sports league.

Yes. That's what the NFL rules say. Yes, but at least that's tough noogies because of an already defined set of rules and not tough noogies because Goodell and a bunch of guys made up a bunch of :censored: 11 minutes before the playoffs, voting for rules changes with specific team interests spelled out, and setting a bad precedent. One is unbiased, the other introduces various levels of inequity. I could live with the former. Now the next time this happens we get to do this whole "please be nice to my team" thing. Just leave the rules as is so it's not a case-by-case basis thing. It's :censored:ing dumb!

That’s what I’m saying. If the Bengals lose to the Ravens the ravens get a coin toss, but if the Bengals and Chiefs wind up in the same relationship in the divisional round the Bengals don’t get a coin toss. The only thing I can figure is they’re giving Baltimore the coin toss as an extra credit because they would have beaten the Bengals twice. It’s still all dumb and everything would’ve been cleanly solved by just using the damn rules about no contest decisions as they were written for this exact scenario. Some teams would’ve been slighted, but at least they would’ve felt slighted by prewritten rules and not rules made up in the nfl office this week. This sets a new bad precedent and displays varying levels of favoritism. You can't play favorites with pre-written rules.

It'll be moot if they just beat the Ravens on Sunday, but per the actual rules as they were already written they shouldn't have had to and they've been changed on the team at the last minute, which we can all agree is bulls***. With the coin toss scenario and the likelihood that the Ravens will be the 6 seed they're essentially asking the Bengals to win their wildcard game twice if they want to advance to the division round, which they will have to play on the road through no fault of their own. The actual proposal makes no :censored:ing sense, zero logical consistency. It would've taken nothing extra to give the Bengals the same deal they gave the Ravens and Bills and if I didn't know better I'd say it's punishment for doing the right thing on Monday night.

Zac Taylor's response to McDermott got the ball rolling on ending the game* and he should get credit for stopping the game, but I also feel like every coach in the league now would look at McDermott and make the same call. 20 years ago, though, I think both coaches would've tried to power through and then said the right things after the game. I still remember watching the Mike Utley and Reggie Brown games as a kid and not even thinking it was weird that they kept playing. They definitely would've kept playing if the Hamlin situation happened 30 years ago. Thankfully those sentiments are changing for the better. After the COVID year and Hamlin situation it's not hard to dream up bad hypotheticals for why a game might not be completed - a mass shooting at a game to suggest an absolute nightmare scenario. Because of that I've actually been very surprised how unprepared the NFL is in the event of a game not being completed. They have rules in their books about what to do, but they seem very eager to just ignore them in favor of this farkakte plan. *and the NFL's public lauding of Taylor followed with the playoff proposal being more unfavorable to the Bengals than any other team feels like they're sending the message, "Nice work, Taylor. You did the right thing. Nobody ever do that again."

Before they went to the extremely Arena League uniforms that looked like the Titans and Miami Hurricanes had a baby they wore these fun guitar neck striped pants, which young me loved. Best pictures I could find.

Last week the Bengals had a shot at the 1 seed and now there's a chance they could win their division and still play the wildcard game in Baltimore, which essentially means Division champions in title (and next season's schedule) only. Gee thanks. They gave the Bills and Ravens a coin toss scenario, but we don't get a coin scenario should we play the Bills in the divisional round? Feels like we got the worst end of everything here despite doing the right thing on Monday night. I don't know why that doesn't seem to count for anything here.

I don't like that idea because a few teams played differently last week because they thought the game didn't matter for them. Also it would probably put stupid Steelers in the playoffs. It would be incredibly NFL to experience an episode caused by their dangerous sport and respond by playing more of their dangerous sport.

Preface: This is like fourth hand telephone and none of these people worked on Hamlin and I'm not a medical professional so it's all speculation and don't repeat this as true gospel. SIL is a physical therapist at a hospital here in Cincinnati and works with a doctor who also works at UC. Doctor, who, again, did not treat Hamlin, told my SIL that Hamlin may have suffered from acute respiratory distress syndrome which can happen after cardiac arrest/CPR and that's why they were having difficulty getting him off the ventilator. Because of ARDS they had to flip him on his stomach to help his lungs heal, which means they had to sedate him further, which is why it took 40 something hours to wake him up. She also said that she heard the CT scans of his brain looked really good. and again disclaimer that's just what she told me, she hasn't been treating him, and I don't pretend to know what I'm talking about.

Every option is bad. There are no good solutions. I think the least bad solution is call it no contest and worry about seeding after Week 18. It doesn't ask the Bills or Bengals to reconvene, repreprare, and then play whats essentially an 18th game. It's also the most practical for everyone's scheduling and requires no scheduling/logistic gymnastics. It screws the Bengals and Bills out of shots at the 1 seed, but that's why I'm saying it's the Least Bad solution - they all have drawbacks. I'm not that worried about Ravens feelings because a Bengals Win, Loss, Tie, or other against the Bills was out of the Ravens' control anyway. They controlled their destiny to make the game with the Bengals into the AFCN championship game and they lost at home to the Steelers. If we're ranking how unfair the situation is for the impacted teams I'd put them a distant third. It's not like they'll be eliminated from the playoffs as a result.

Chiefs Jags Browns Vikings Jets Bucs Saints Colts 49ers Cowboys Seahawks Eagles Broncos Packers Bengals Bills

No Bart Scott sucks and has a pattern of jackass takes. He’s wrong here.

There's two long-held rumors circulating in Blue Jackets online circles about hosting a game at Ohio Stadium and why it hasn't happened and won't anytime soon: 1. Rumor is someone in a position of power with the team doesn't want to do it so they haven't asked the league. 2. Ohio State, who is a terrible partner with the local pro teams, claims the stadium isn't winterized and they don't want to winterize it for one event. Notre Dame and Michigan stadiums hosted Winter Classics just fine, Ohio Stadium itself has hosted below freezing football games before, so I call BS on that. They could make it happen if they wanted to, but they don't want to because they don't like anything in the city that isn't about them. And that's without getting into all the issues about the team not being a large national draw or being, ya know, good.

I want to see some test football games for a spring league where punting isn't allowed. You have to go for it on every fourth down. What would that mean for the defenses? What would that mean for offensive play calling? What would the final scores look like?

I was not at the game, but I was downtown last night. Surreal experience leaving the bar and trying to get home before the rush. Very quiet, eerie, nobody really knew what to do. People I know at the game said it was terrifying. It's really weird the relationship Bills and Bengals fans have developed since the Bengals clinched the playoffs for them in 2017. I can't think of any other fanbase friendships in sports quite like it. We're going to be linked for a very long time. As far as what to do about the game - who even cares? Just don't play it and treat it like a tie.

The craziest thing is he played in the next game.

Sounds like the youth baseball player who was hit in the chest by a pitch and died from his heart stopping. Freak accident we were told, but many kids started wearing chest plates under their jerseys after that.

This is how McDaniels won his first game as a head coach. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwSYGmeM8DM STUPID. The Bengals ended up winning the division that year. The Broncos started 6-0, were 8-4 at one point, and finished 8-8. LOL :censored: you, Brandon Stokely.

Mark Davis can't afford to fire McDaniels because he's still paying Jon Gruden who knows how much from last year. It's very very funny. It's also very funny that McDaniels was the hot coach every team wanted for like a decade and it turns out he's somehow dumber now than he was when he used a first round pick on Tebow 12 years ago.

How is wearing all black "showing out"? Explain that to me right now, Ravens social media team.

A round robin group stage sounds very fun. Who do I have to cyberbully to get that going?

Depending on the day, the 1998 Jaguars uniforms might be my all-time favorite football uniform ever. I'd gladly welcome a return of them with nary a change, which includes going back to the superior original logo. Whenever people make suggestions on how to improve the Jaguars current uniforms they end up accidentally describing the 1998 uniforms. Just wear the 1998 uniforms. They were perfect. The 2018 redesign was a welcome change because anything would've been a welcome change over what was, depending on the day, maybe my least favorite football uniform ever. Now though, I see it on its own merits - It was an over-correction. It's the 1995 uniforms without any of the parts that made it good. Something intentionally spartan does nothing for me when we already have the example for how to perfectly execute those colors. The Minimalism trend is dead, maximalism looked stupid as hell, and the answer is sitting right there. Stop being afraid to be who you are, Jaguars. Wear it forever, never change again.

This play is the thing I'll always remember about JJ Watt. That Bengals team making the playoffs at all was an unexpected miracle, but I knew they weren't coming back from this. Ended up losing 31-10. The first of 5 straight years of losing on Wildcard Weekend.