The NFL playoff seeding rule proposal was under the Detroit Lions’ name, but it actually wasn’t their idea.
Last week during the NFL owners meeting, teams discussed whether they should change current playoff seedings to no longer give division winners an automatic home game—a rule proposed by the Detroit Lions. Ultimately, the league owners opted to table the discussion for the next meetings in May, but Lions team president Rod Wood revealed an interesting fact about the overall process: the rule change was not the Lions’ idea—it was the NFL’s.
Let’s take you back to Week 18. The Lions and Minnesota Vikings were both 14-2 and set to play each other in the season finale with the NFC’s No. 1 seed on the line. The loser of the game would drop all the way to the No. 5 seed, despite the fact that they would be tied for the second-best record in the conference (14-3). That’s because current rules have the top four seeds all occupied by division winners.
Lions receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown didn’t love that rule and told the media before the game.
“It’s crazy. I think the rule should be changed,” St. Brown said. “Obviously if you win the division, you should obviously make a playoff spot, but having a 14-win team having to go on the road is kind of crazy. But I guess I don’t make the rules.”
That clip of St. Brown went pretty viral, and it caught the eye of the NFL. Troy Vincent, the NFL’s executive vice president of football operations, immediately got Wood on the phone.
“Troy Vincent from the league reached out to me and said, ‘I tend to agree with (St. Brown). Would you mind partnering with us on making a proposal on that?’” Wood said. “So we made a proposal.”
Obviously, the Lions agreed with the proposal, too, but it’s interesting to hear how that process played out. It also likely explains why this rule change has enough support to reconsider the proposal in May. Rich McKay, the longest-standing member of the NFL Competition Committee, explained one amendment to the rule they may consider.
“What if you said: win the division you get a home game and you keep it the way it is, unless your record is .500 or lower? Then you don’t. I think there’s some talk about that. So I think people want to keep looking at it,” McKay said.
