CINCINNATI (AP) — Joe Mixon and the Cincinnati Bengals are still flipping out over the NFL’s plan to determine home-field advantage in the playoffs.
Mixon referenced the NFL’s decision to use a coin flip as a tiebreaker Sunday by celebrating a 1-yard touchdown run against the Baltimore Ravens by taking a coin out of his glove and flicking it. He and several teammates then kicked it on the ground.
The league decided to add a coin flip to settle a potential playoff scenario after Monday night’s game between the Bengals and Buffalo Bills was declared a no-contest after Bills safety Damar Hamlin went into cardiac arrest on the field.
Under the NFL’s ruling, if Baltimore beat AFC North champion Cincinnati on Sunday and the two teams ended up playing each other in the first round of the playoffs, a coin flip would be used to determine the home team.
“So we not following the rules no more,” Mixon wrote Thursday about the coin-flip resolution, sharing screen grabs of the league’s game operations manual, which note that if games are canceled, playoff standings are to be determined using the final records from the games that were played.
Bengals coach Zac Taylor made it clear this week the team isn’t happy with the league changing the rules.
“We just want the rules to be followed,” Taylor said earlier in the week. “When a game is canceled, you turn to winning percentage to clarify everything, so we don’t have to make up the rules. There’s several instances this season when the club is fined, or people in our building are fined, and we’re told to follow the rules. It’s black and white. It’s in the rule book. So, when you’re told we’re going to change that, I don’t want to hear about fair and equitable in that case.”
Mixon’s touchdown helped propel the Bengals to an early 17-0 lead over the Ravens.
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