AFC Championship game on neutral ground? What does this fix?
A good opportunity for a class action lawsuit by season ticket holders of teams potentially impacted by a change in motivation for some final matchups of the season.
Seems ridiculously complicated when you could just delay the playoffs by one week.
How long before someone is accused of faking such an injury?
Impossible? Maybe. But I recall a story from rural Texas many years ago. A traditional powerhouse football team had a very bad year. They hosted their traditional arch rival, who fielded a great team that year, and late in the fourth quarter were trailing the arch rivals by 50 odd (or some other huge number) points. Incensed at the thought of such a loss, someone affiliated with the school shut off the power to the field lights.
It was announced that the lights could not be restored that night, so the game was finished. The home team is responsible for providing a suitable playing field, and forfeits if it fails to do so. So, instead of a 56-3 (or whatever) loss, the game went into the record books as a 2-0 forfeit.
Flip a coin
I’ve heard that if this game had been between two teams who were just playing out the string of the season, this issue would not have nearly the attention that it has been getting.
I think it’s clear that any solution that does not involve replaying that game is going to be criticized by people.
I think all sports fans would like to see things settled on the field , and not decided by the commissioner and his people sitting in an office
There is no completely just way to fix this. The simplest way and the one that creates the least distortions is to simply base it on the standings after this Sunday’s games. In essence, the cancelled game is a tie.