Mark Madden: With Bengals-Bills postponed, pushing back NFL playoffs seems to be best option

As most said sincerely but a few said by way of disclaimer, everything else was utterly insignificant compared to Damar Hamlin clinging to his life in the wake of the Buffalo Bills safety collapsing during “Monday Night Football.”

But that doesn’t mean everything else was utterly insignificant.

That game’s result egregiously affects the seeding atop the AFC playoff picture.

If the game is declared a no-contest and the standings determined by winning percentage, Buffalo no longer controls its chances of getting the AFC’s top seed/bye, Cincinnati can’t, and Baltimore can’t win the AFC North. With those possibilities come significant rewards. Home field matters. Byes matter.

Pushing the playoffs back a week to manufacture a Week 19 continuation between Buffalo and Cincinnati is the closest option to fair, but it’s inconvenient.

The NFL loves the off-week between the conference championships and Super Bowl. It’s nonstop hype. It also gives the participants a modicum of protection from injuries. That would have to be eliminated to allow for a Week 19 game.

Then there’s the eerie specter of resuming that game on that field with all of football watching.

Say the Bills-Bengals game gets declared void, then the Bills lose the AFC final at Kansas City with that game having been placed at Arrowhead Stadium by an NFL decision.

But life isn’t fair. Neither are sports. (Then again, Buffalo won at Arrowhead in October.)

Resuming play Monday night would not have been unprecedented.

The Bengals and Steelers finished a game on that same field in 2017 after Steelers linebacker Ryan Shazier had clearly been very badly injured and ultimately required spinal stabilization surgery.

Shazier never played football again. But the Steelers and Bengals played football a few minutes later.

Make no mistake, the right decision was made Monday. (I mean that sincerely and, perhaps more than most, I also understand the value of the disclaimer.)

I don’t believe that the NFL wanted to resume play after a five-minute warmup. I do think the teams’ coaches put an end to any possibility of the game continuing. Cincinnati’s Zac Taylor and Buffalo’s Sean McDermott deserve credit.

Rightly or wrongly, one big topic since Monday is how the sports media did and didn’t distinguish itself after Hamlin got hurt.

ESPN’s Ryan Clark did. Fox’s Skip Bayless didn’t. ESPN’s Dan Orlovsky prayed, which abstractly seems a mixing of church and state. ESPN’s Bart Scott put a dab of blame on Cincinnati receiver Tee Higgins for lowering his helmet in the collision, and that got blown way out of proportion. Scott did not try to villainize Higgins.

Some, of course, blamed the covid vaccine despite absolutely zero link. Those were mostly nutbars on Twitter.

Somebody or something always must get blamed. That’s where we’re at. The blame is accompanied by an avalanche of virtue signaling.

But playing football involves a big element of danger. It always will. That won’t change. It can’t be fixed or made safe. It’s risk vs. reward.

The preaching of how unimportant football is by those who prosper via spewing and scribbling word-drool about it 24/7 was ironic. Buffalo vs. Cincinnati was promoted like an in-season Super Bowl, then we got told it doesn’t matter.

If that game resumes, nobody should watch. Since it’s not important.

Here’s hoping Hamlin makes a full recovery and plays again if he’s cleared and that’s what he wants.

One good thing resulted: Hamlin’s online charity has raised more than $6 million in the aftermath of his injury.

Hamlin is a McKees Rocks kid, went to Central Catholic High School and played college ball at Pitt. That brought what happened home.

The outpouring of concern has been touching. Making vague connections, however, has veered between funny and forced.

For example, Tage Thompson’s hat trick for the Buffalo Sabres on Tuesday was not inspired by Hamlin. (That’s been attached.) Thompson has 30 goals. He scores a lot.

But rally around what you want.