Quote:
Originally Posted by Rain Man
Change my username to Callous if you want, but I don't think the teams should be consulted on this. What if McDermott would prefer the unexpected bye week and a road game over a 50 percent chance of winning a bye week? Competitive factors come into play.
And is it only the Bills' decision, or do the Bengals have input? What if one team wants to play and the other doesn't?
I get that a team could conceivably forfeit any game, but if the Texans decide to forfeit next week because the game is pointless and they want to save some game checks, the league would/should pull their franchise. An NFL team is obligated to play the games that the league tells them to play, and while this situation is unfortunate, it's below the line at which the league's authority extends.
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Well you can't exactly make them take the field at gunpoint, so that extent they're involved in the decision-making process.
But no, I don't think there's any reason the NFL should be asking Buffalo if they're ready to play this weekend. That's where the 'efficient breach' scenario enters the equation. Remind them of their obligations and what the consequences of not satisfying them would be to give them a full understanding of the equation involved.
At that point, if Buffalo has weighed the options and elects not to show up, there isn't much the NFL can do about it. And frankly I wouldn't really be bothered by either course.