On Thursday the NFL decided, out of respect for the victims of the Sep
11 terrorist attack, to cancel Sunday's football games . Was this a classy
move by the NFL? Of course it was. Now another question remains, "How
will this decision affect the NFL 2001 season?" The answer hangs in the
balance.
As of this writing the
NFL remains non-committal on whether or not the games will be played at a
later date. It appears to be contemplating a choice between playing the
games during the Wildcard Playoff Round and eliminating 4 of the 12
playoff spots, or simply cancelling the games and trying to sort out the
playoff teams based on an abridged version of the tiebreaker system. Here
at GRIDLINE, we don't favor either proposal, and we don't understand why
the NFL would limit their options at this point.
We strongly urge the NFL to make up Sunday's games AND proceed with a
full playoff schedule. GRIDLINE proposes that the cancelled Sunday games
be played on wildcard playoff weekend, and the wildcard games be played
the following Wednesday and Thursday nights. The Divisional Playoff Round
may proceed as scheduled. We understand that it is a rough road for 8 teams,
but the road to the Super Bowl has historically been a rough one for the
wildcards.
Just as the World Trade Center stood as a shining example of American ingenuity
and economic power, the NFL Playoff format has been the sturdiest and fairest in
all of sports. In fact, the AFL-NFL merger and the wildcard aspect of the NFL
playoff system was effected in 1970, the same year that the World Trade Center
opened for business. Both of these institutions have served us well for over
thirty years. Tuesday, the World Trade Center was reduced to rubble in an
incomprehensible act of terrorism. Let us not see the NFL's playoff structure
collapse as a result of that same incident.