Joe Mixon (28), running back for the Cincinnati Bengals, makes a gesture on the sidelines before kickoff against the Oakland Raiders. Mandatory attribution to Darren Yamashita-USA TODAY Sports
The NFL’s proposed response to the postponed Bengals-Bills game has not gone over well with Joe Mixon.
According to a Thursday night NFL announcement, the Bengals’ Week 17 game against the Bills in Cincinnati will not be restarted. A proposal to address the issues raised by the postponement of the Bills-Bengals game is being presented to the owners on Friday, the league said.
Despite the offer, Mixon is unhappy. The Bengals running back tweeted the following along with a screenshot of the NFL rule book:
So we’re not playing by the rules anymore,” Mixon wrote on Twitter.
🤔So we not following the rules no more🐸☕️ pic.twitter.com/AreAM1xAsp
— ⚡️Primetime!!!⚡️ (@Joe_MainMixon) January 6, 2023
As Mixon argues, the NFL has a rule in place to handle postponed games. The league uses a team’s winning percentage as the determining factor in where each team is placed in the postseason bracket. If the league’s plan is implemented, neither neutral locations nor coin tosses would be necessary.
The idea does not do much to help the Bengals other than the possibility of a neutral field game in the AFC championship if they manage to beat the Chiefs.
The Bengals would have won the AFC North and secured a home playoff game if the league had followed the established rules. If the Ravens beat the Bengals in Week 18 and end up playing each other in the wild-card round, the idea calls for a coin toss to decide which team gets to host.
It’s unfair that the proposal wouldn’t convert a potential playoff matchup between the Bills and Bengals to a neutral site game, or that it wouldn’t convert a potential playoff matchup between the Chiefs and Bengals to a neutral site game in the divisional round.
The NFL shouldn’t leave out those cases if it wants to be consistent. Nonetheless, they are, and this has Mixon very displeased.
It’s safe to assume the Bengals will vote against the plan this Friday when league owners make their decision. The NFL plan needs a super majority of 24 votes to approve.
Larry Brown Sports was the first to publish that Joe Mixon is unhappy with NFL’s offer.
