NFL Will Not Resume The Buffalo Bills/Cincinnati Bengals Game After Damar Hamlin Injury

deadline.com:

The NFL has decided the Week 17 Buffalo Bills at Cincinnati Bengals game will not be resumed and has been cancelled. League Commissioner Roger Goodell informed all clubs of his decision earlier today after consulting both teams and the NFL Players Association leadership.  “This has been a very difficult week,” Goodell said. “We continue to focus on the recovery of Damar Hamlin and are encouraged by the improvements in his condition as well as the tremendous outpouring of support and care for Damar and his family from across the country.

We are also incredibly appreciative of the amazing work of the medical personnel and commend each and every one of them.”  Goodell said that not playing the game will not affect the playoffs, as no team would either qualify or be eliminated from those matchups based on the outcome.

He ruled out pushing the schedule by a week to get in the game, as it would affect the other 14 playoffs team.s “Making the decision prior to Week 18 is consistent with our competitive principles and enables all clubs to know the playoff possibilities prior to playing the final weekend of regular season games,” the NFL statement read.

Because of potential competitive inequities in certain playoff scenarios, the league will consider alternatives. 1 – The AFC Championship Game will be played at a neutral site if the participating teams played an unequal number of games and both could have been the number one seed and hosted the game had all AFC clubs played a full 17-game regular season.