The Buffalo Bills will head pretty far west to take on the Denver Broncos next Saturday for a Divisional Round playoff game. The matchup has invited lots of conversation, with much of it due to when the game is happening. The Broncos earned a bye during the Wild Card round as the AFC’s one seed. That gave Denver extra rest, and now they have an even better advantage thanks to Buffalo having to prep under time constraints for Saturday.
The biggest detriment to the Bills here is their injury situation,
which only worsened following the win over the Jacksonville Jaguars. While season-ending injuries to players such as is likely the case with wide receiver Gabe Davis (ACL tear) don’t factor into an extra day of prep this week, ones of nebulous severity to players such as Josh Allen (foot, knee, throwing hand) wide receiver Tyrell Shavers (knee) and continued issues to monitor with tight end Dalton Kincaid could be impacted.
But here we are, with the NFL juggernaut forcing teams to play in nontraditional windows during the playoffs. It’s not the first time the NFL has held a playoff game in the Monday Night Football time slot, but it is a game that’s drawing a lot of discussion, perhaps none more eloquently so than by Tony Dungy, who wrote the following in a lengthy social media post:
“NFL playoff scheduling is not fair. It might produce good ratings but it’s not fair. This late in the season recovery time is crucial and it is not given equally. Rams & Bears played Saturday games. They will face each other on Sunday with an extra day of rest. 49ers played on Sunday and will face Seattle on Saturday-short week of recovery. Why? In the AFC the Bills will have to travel to Denver on a short week. Why? Because there’s a Monday night AFC Wild Card game. The Texans play Pittsburgh. The winner will automatically have a short week and travel to New England. Why? Several years ago the league did away with Monday Night games in Week 18 of the regular season because it created a disadvantage if one of those teams made the playoffs. Now we create that disadvantage. The Wild Card round should be 3 games on Saturday and 3 games on Sunday. Then try to schedule the Divisional games so the teams have equal rest. Don’t force San Francisco, Buffalo and Houston or Pittsburgh to play the most important game of their season on a short week just for TV ratings. That is not fair!”
With the Pittsburgh Steelers hosting the Houston Texans tonight, it was unlikely the NFL would ask tonight’s winner to play on an Saturday amid what would be an exceptionally short week. That leaves Sunday’s Wild Card-winning teams in the Buffalo Bills, San Francisco 49ers set to face their one-seed conference foes on a short week (plus the winner of Steelers/Texans having less prep time against New England Patriots). Meanwhile, teams that played this past Saturday (Los Angeles Rams, Chicago Bears) will play their Divisional Round games on Sunday, getting an extra day of rest.
What Dungy lays out makes all the sense in the world, but probably not to those with the most money and power in the world of professional football and entertainment broadcasting. It’s a tale as old as time, and one unlikely to change so long as the sport of NFL football is about making bank. Spoiler alert: It is.
