The NFL started utilizing record-based home-field benefit within the playoffs in 1975, but it surely took till 1990 for each division winner to obtain a assured postseason house recreation. The Lions have challenged a long-held norm by proposing a change to take away the assure of a division champion being assured at the very least one January house tilt.
No change within the NFL’s playoff construction occurred on the league conferences this week, however the Detroit proposal was not voted down. No vote befell, because the league tabled the measure, in accordance with NFL.com’s Tom Pelissero. Nevertheless, some groups supported it. Extra notably, Roger Goodell supplied some reward to what could be a big change — one that had already come up earlier than the Lions made an official proposal.
“I believed it’s a very wholesome proposal and a really wholesome level that we have to consider and proceed to take a look at,” Goodell stated, via CBS Sports’ Jonathan Jones. “It went by many various kinds. There was some nice information to point out that we should always actually take a look at some type or model of this. However there was additionally a extremely robust viewpoint that profitable the division was the No. 1 factor. While you come into coaching camp, that’s the objective: win that division first. And will that reward for profitable that division be you’re within the playoffs and a house recreation?”
Whereas competitors committee member Mike Tomlin pushed again towards stripping division champs of first-round house video games, Jones notes the Cowboys have been one of many groups that supported a format wherein a staff’s document — no matter its divisional end — dictated the postseason websites. This could have benefited the Vikings final yr, because the Lions’ Week 18 win over their division rival pushed 14-3 Minnesota to the No. 5 seed — forward of an eventual loss to the 10-7 Rams, who rested starters after being assured of a house recreation by advantage of an NFC West title.
The NFL’s first 5 post-merger playoff brackets got here with out information figuring out house fields, because the websites rotated yearly. The 14-0 Dolphins famously needed to play the 1972 AFC Championship Sport at Three Rivers Stadium. When the league shifted to record-based home-field dedication in 1975, the division winner with the third-best document nonetheless needed to start on the street as a result of solely 4 groups per convention making the playoffs. From 1978-89, every convention’s third-best division champ additionally started on the street towards the No. 2 seed — underneath a setup that includes one wild-card recreation and three groups holding first-round byes per convention. The NFL’s transfer to six-team playoff brackets in 1990 started guaranteeing house video games to division champs.
This has produced some attention-grabbing matchups, with .500-or-worse groups utilizing the house recreation to upend higher opposition. The 2008 Chargers went from 5-8 to 8-8 and upset the 12-4 Colts in time beyond regulation, whereas Marshawn Lynch‘s “Beastquake” journey powered the 7-9 Seahawks to a win over the defending Tremendous Bowl champion Saints (11-5) in 2010. A Tim Tebow-to-Demaryius Thomas game-winner propelled the 8-8 Broncos to a 2011 wild-card win over the 12-4 Steelers, whereas a 7-8-1 Panthers staff defeated an 11-5 Cardinals squad — one utilizing a third-string QB — in 2014. Washington (2020) and Tampa Bay (2022) additionally hosted video games as sub-.500 groups. These cases seem to have come up on the conferences.
“There was some dialogue probably about when you’re .500 or much less and also you gained that division, do you have to additionally get the house recreation? I feel there was some curiosity in that additionally,” Goodell stated. “However I feel the fact is it was very wholesome and I feel there shall be extra dialogue of it.”
As a transfer to 18 video games appears inevitable in the not-too-distant future, the prospect of golf equipment clinching divisions earlier looms. A stability between guaranteeing a division winner a playoff spot however not a house recreation might assist power groups — notably these with stronger home-field benefits — to maintain pushing for increased seeds. Resting starters in Week 18 has grow to be pretty frequent for the reason that schedule expanded, and this figures to come back up — particularly with an 18th recreation all however sure to be added earlier than the 2020s wrap — when homeowners revisit this dialogue.
Whereas the NFL yanking a house recreation away from division champs would devalue the accomplishment to a level, it could appear unlikely the divisions would devolve into the pretty meaningless coalitions the NBA makes use of. Goodell commonly drives adjustments, and his not dismissing Detroit’s proposal opens the door to this turning into a severe speaking level.
