The NFL started utilizing record-based home-field benefit within the playoffs in 1975, however it took till 1990 for each division winner to obtain a assured postseason residence sport. The Lions have challenged a long-held norm by proposing a change to take away the assure of a division champion being assured a minimum of one January residence 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 came about, because the league tabled the measure, in response to NFL.com’s Tom Pelissero. Nevertheless, some groups supported it. Extra notably, Roger Goodell supplied some reward to what can be a major change — one that had already come up earlier than the Lions made an official proposal.
“I assumed it’s a very wholesome proposal and a really wholesome level that we have to consider and proceed to take a look at,” Goodell mentioned, via CBS Sports’ Jonathan Jones. “It went by way of many various kinds. There was some nice knowledge to indicate that we must always actually have a look at some kind or model of this. However there was additionally a extremely robust standpoint that profitable the division was the No. 1 factor. Whenever 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 sport?”
Whereas competitors committee member Mike Tomlin pushed again in opposition to stripping division champs of first-round residence video games, Jones notes the Cowboys had been one of many groups that supported a format through which a group’s report — no matter its divisional end — dictated the postseason websites. This is able to 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 sport by advantage of an NFC West title.
The NFL’s first 5 post-merger playoff brackets got here with out data figuring out residence fields, because the websites rotated yearly. The 14-0 Dolphins famously needed to play the 1972 AFC Championship Recreation at Three Rivers Stadium. When the league shifted to record-based home-field dedication in 1975, the division winner with the third-best report nonetheless needed to start on the highway on account of solely 4 groups per convention making the playoffs. From 1978-89, every convention’s third-best division champ additionally started on the highway in opposition to the No. 2 seed — underneath a setup that includes one wild-card sport and three groups holding first-round byes per convention. The NFL’s transfer to six-team playoff brackets in 1990 started guaranteeing residence video games to division champs.
This has produced some attention-grabbing matchups, with .500-or-worse groups utilizing the house sport to upend higher opposition. The 2008 Chargers went from 5-8 to 8-8 and upset the 12-4 Colts in additional time, 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 group 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 situations seem to have come up on the conferences.
“There was some dialogue probably about in case you’re .500 or much less and also you gained that division, do you have to additionally get the house sport? I believe there was some curiosity in that additionally,” Goodell mentioned. “However I believe the truth is it was very wholesome and I believe there will probably 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 sport may assist drive groups — significantly these with stronger home-field benefits — to maintain pushing for increased seeds. Resting starters in Week 18 has turn into pretty widespread for the reason that schedule expanded, and this figures to return up — particularly with an 18th sport all however sure to be added earlier than the 2020s wrap — when house owners revisit this dialogue.
Whereas the NFL yanking a house sport away from division champs would devalue the accomplishment to a level, it might appear unlikely the divisions would devolve into the pretty meaningless coalitions the NBA makes use of. Goodell usually drives adjustments, and his not dismissing Detroit’s proposal opens the door to this turning into a severe speaking level.
