Per today's GM Call Titans likely to be made an example of by NFL...

[Big Turk]

2 GM's anonymously stated that Titans and Raiders to a lesser extent were significantly featured in slides of behaviors that are specifically in violation of COVID protocols and the sense was they were about to face significant penalties. Both GM's were in favor of significant penalties as well...

 

Also, and this is important, both the NFL AND NFLPA believe the Titans violated the policies in place.

 

https://sports.yahoo.com/sources-titans-likely-to-face-league-discipline-for-safety-protocol-violations-found-in-covid-investigation-221142734.html

Edited October 8, 2020 by matter2003

[Captain_Quint]

They should make them pay lost revenue for the game and players salaries. 

[Foxx]

forfeit?

 

5-0??

[Matt_In_NH]

3 minutes ago, Foxx said:

forfeit?

 

5-0??

would you want that?

[SirAndrew]

3 minutes ago, Foxx said:

forfeit?

 

5-0??

Yeah, but does Josh throw for 300 ? 

[1ManRaid]

This is news?

[Captain Caveman]

Just now, mattynh said:

would you want that?

 

YES

 

We already (hopefully) dodged a bullet against the Raiders, we should not have to play these two dumb franchises, much less back to back.

[billsfan89]

1 minute ago, mattynh said:

would you want that?

 

Hell yes, win with no injuries or even wear and tear? Sign me up, I get the competitive aspect of it but overall it would be such a huge advantage for the Bills to get a win/bye for free into the hardest game of the season

[Success]

2 minutes ago, mattynh said:

would you want that?

 

I want to play, because I think we'd beat them.

 

But getting the W by forfeit would drive Patriots fans bananas. So, there is some benefit there.

 

[CLTbills]

3 minutes ago, mattynh said:

would you want that?

While not ideal, I'd rather do that than either:

 

A.) lose our week 11 bye, or

B.) Have to play them week 18 and lose a potential week of rest before the playoffs.

[Warcodered]

Pretty sure that's per yesterday.

[Matt_In_NH]

1 minute ago, CLTbills said:

While not ideal, I'd rather do that than either:

 

A.) lose our week 11 bye, or

B.) Have to play them week 18 and lose a potential week of rest before the playoffs.

 

I hate the idea of getting a win (or a loss) by forfeit, ********************************************

 

There are other options, go by win % and play 15 games vs give one team a loss and one a win.  They could decide what to do later.  If a bunch of other games end up in this same situation, then an 18th week is more reasonable.  I said this before the season, get ready for an unfair season. But I was figuring different teams would play different amounts of games and they would go by win%.   Win by forfeiture is cheap and will be seen as cheap by the public.  I say that with the understanding the Titans screwed up.....I still dont like it.

6 minutes ago, billsfan89 said:

 

Hell yes, win with no injuries or even wear and tear? Sign me up, I get the competitive aspect of it but overall it would be such a huge advantage for the Bills to get a win/bye for free into the hardest game of the season

 And that woudl be fair to the OTHER teams, not talkign about the Titans....how would you feel if the NFL starts gifting wins to the Pats.

[aristocrat]

8 minutes ago, mattynh said:

would you want that?

why not? In other years there are games that are basically forfeits if one team had a rash of injuries or is just flat awful.  Different circumstances but titans are basically an injured squad 

[Matt_In_NH]

1 minute ago, aristocrat said:

why not? In other years there are games that are basically forfeits if one team had a rash of injuries or is just flat awful.  Different circumstances but titans are basically an injured squad 

 

I disagree with the bolded completely.  I have never seen a forfeit in major sports, are there examples?

 

And why not?  Because its not fair to the other 30 teams

Edited October 8, 2020 by mattynh

[Saint Doug]

I don’t want a forfeit win, but given the very abnormal circumstances, I can’t provide a good enough reason why it shouldn’t be the prudent thing to do. Let’s get away from all the stats, fantasy football, bragging rights angles. We’re in a pandemic. The team that we are to play next week was grossly negligent in their handling of the NFL’s protocol. We didn’t ask for this. They did. The Commish has specifically said forfeiture is on the table. It should be used to not only keep players safe, but also to continue the NFL season as intended. 

Edited October 8, 2020 by Saint Doug

[CLTbills]

3 minutes ago, mattynh said:

 

I disagree with the bolded completely.  I have never seen a forfeit in major sports, are there examples?

 

And why not?  Because its not fair to the other 30 teams

I Googled it earlier today. There has never in NFL history been an actual forfeit. Never.

[Foxx]

12 minutes ago, billsfan89 said:

 

Hell yes, win with no injuries or even wear and tear? Sign me up, I get the competitive aspect of it but overall it would be such a huge advantage for the Bills to get a win/bye for free into the hardest game of the season

the biggest drawback would be no Bill's football this weekend. 

[Bermuda Triangle]

17 minutes ago, mattynh said:

would you want that?

I'd rather a forfeit than the Bills players risk being infected by sharing the field with the Titans.

[Virgil]

I've thought about this, and if the Bills did it, I would understand if they had to forfeit.  The league just can't keep accommodating teams that violate the rules.  On some level, the Bills would get a break because maybe their game could have been rescheduled instead of the Steelers game, so who knows.

Either way, I think the NFL should add a bye week in Week 18, but the Titans have already gotten their pass with the re-schedule

[Mrbojanglezs]

[Captain Caveman]

7 minutes ago, mattynh said:

 

I disagree with the bolded completely.  I have never seen a forfeit in major sports, are there examples?

 

And why not?  Because its not fair to the other 30 teams

 

I think he's saying that if a team has enough injuries it would be almost the same as a forfeit.  For example, if we play the Titans Monday and they're down the 10-15 players who have tested positive (and maybe even more if they suspend the players who had outside workouts) what are our chances of losing that game? Sure, anything is possible, and these are strange times, but we should win a game played under those circumstances 95 timers out of 100 or more.

[Wayne Cubed]

I’ve stated it before but I don’t want the Bills to have a forfeited win. The Bills shouldn’t be given an advantage because the scheduling of when they aren’t meant to play the Titans, no team should. 
 

For all the fans that want the forfeit, would you be ok if the Patriots got a forfeited and the Bills miss out on winning the division by 1 game? What about if the Bills were to miss out on the number 1 seed in the AFC because another team got a forfeited win?

[Hapless Bills Fan]

34 minutes ago, matter2003 said:

2 GM's anonymously stated that Titans and Raiders to a lesser extent were significantly featured in slides of behaviors that are specifically in violation of COVID protocols and the sense was they were about to face significant penalties. Both GM's were in favor of significant penalties as well...

 

Also, and this is important, both the NFL AND NFLPA believe the Titans violated the policies in place.

 

https://sports.yahoo.com/sources-titans-likely-to-face-league-discipline-for-safety-protocol-violations-found-in-covid-investigation-221142734.html

 

It's all just air molecules and electrons at waste until the NFL actually makes a decision and lets it out.

 

Case in point:

https://touchdownwire.usatoday.com/2020/10/07/tennessee-titans-nfl-covid-workout/

[billsfan89]

24 minutes ago, mattynh said:

 And that woudl be fair to the OTHER teams, not talkign about the Titans....how would you feel if the NFL starts gifting wins to the Pats.

 

It obviously wouldn't be fair to the rest of the league. The football fan in me would hate to see it BUT The Bills fan in me would love to give the Bills a free win and a free bye week at the same time. Honestly the Titans deserve to be severely punished for their negligence and the NFL failed to add in extra weeks to the season to compensate for this type of scenario.

[dreadlox]

25 minutes ago, mattynh said:

 

 And that woudl be fair to the OTHER teams, not talkign about the Titans....how would you feel if the NFL starts gifting wins to the Pats.

I think they already started this about 20 years ago.

[Ed_Formerly_of_Roch]

I will preface by stating I am 100% Bills fan

 

IMO the Titans should forfeit these two games so their record would be 3-2, let them suffer

 

I don't however think the Bills and Steelers should be given wins as wins are too tough to come by in the NFL to award a team for doing nothing.  Typically the difference between winning the division and/or getting a wild card comes down to tie breakers like div/conf record, or even points so to give a team a win just seems like too much of an advantage to them and unfair to the other teams.  At the end of the season playoff spots are awarded on winning percentage, Bills are 10-5 played 15 games, and team is 10-6 and played all 16 games.  Bills are ahead of them. (I did just read a column that the NFL is looking at changing playoff seeding to be  based on win percentage so may be heading that way)

 

MLB, NBA, etc where you're playing 80 to 160 games a year would have little problem awarding a team a win as not nearly as impactful in the grand scheme.

[Matt_In_NH]

16 minutes ago, Captain Caveman said:

 

I think he's saying that if a team has enough injuries it would be almost the same as a forfeit.  For example, if we play the Titans Monday and they're down the 10-15 players who have tested positive (and maybe even more if they suspend the players who had outside workouts) what are our chances of losing that game? Sure, anything is possible, and these are strange times, but we should win a game played under those circumstances 95 timers out of 100 or more.

I read it, I dont agree with it, it's not the same.

[Hebert19]

39 minutes ago, mattynh said:

would you want that?

I would not care.  Win is a win. 

[eee1776]

I am in favor of the NFL making a week 18. There are going to be more circumstance like this before the end of the season. all postponed games play in week 18 and then push playoffs back one week if the tv folks agree with this.

[Captain Caveman]

 

For everyone saying a forfeit isn't fair - Does it really matter if we are gifted a win by playing a team with 30-40 players who hasn't had any practice all week (hopefully) or just gifted the win period, does it really make a difference?

[loveorhatembillsfan4life]

Week 18 or forfeit. Keep the schedule moving forward on track. 31 teams have done fairly good with the exception of a couple players. Half a team now has screwed up two weeks now with themselves to blame. Nfl should come down hard. 

[Matt_In_NH]

4 minutes ago, Hebert19 said:

I would not care.  Win is a win. 

The Bills win the Super Bowl!!!!! a win is a win?  What are you talking about?  Its not a win....it's ridicuolus

[billsfan89]

Just now, loveorhatembillsfan4life said:

Week 18 or forfeit. Keep the schedule moving forward on track. 31 teams have done fairly good with the exception of a couple players. Half a team now has screwed up two weeks now with themselves to blame. Nfl should come down hard. 

 

The NFL should delay the start of the playoffs two weeks to add in a week 18 and 19 if needed (playoffs could be moved up a week if no week 19 is needed.) The injury bug has hit the NFL hard and it might benefit everyone to have a week or two off before the playoffs anyway. Overall the NFL bungled the season by not having it be 19 weeks with 2 league wide bye weeks baked in. They could have used those league wide bye weeks to reschedule any Covid games. 

[Da webster guy]

29 minutes ago, mattynh said:

 

I disagree with the bolded completely.  I have never seen a forfeit in major sports, are there examples?

 

And why not?  Because its not fair to the other 30 teams

 

Uh matty, don't look for precedent with the COVID sports world, you won't find it.

Every sport has made extreme changes to try and finish their season, and some of it isn't fair to certain teams.  The NFL is no different, we've already got some teams with zero fans and others with the OK to fill the entire stadium.

 

To me it makes sense to push Bills Titans a few days out if they can do it safely, as well as the KC game to Sunday night.   Pushing a game with no fans isn't that hard. 

[1stgm1993]

There have been no forfeits in the league's history; a 1921 game between the Rochester Jeffersons and the Washington Senators is occasionally listed as a forfeit, but because of the lax cancellation rules of the time and uncertainty over which team (if either) was at fault for the game not being played, the game is listed in modern records as a cancellation.

wiki

[Matt_In_NH]

Just now, Da webster guy said:

 

Uh matty, don't look for precedent with the COVID sports world, you won't find it.

Every sport has made extreme changes to try and finish their season, and some of it isn't fair to certain teams.  The NFL is no different, we've already got some teams with zero fans and others with the OK to fill the entire stadium.

 

To me it makes sense to push Bills Titans a few days out if they can do it safely, as well as the KC game to Sunday night.   Pushing a game with no fans isn't that hard. 

 

Unprecedented, all the other leagues are also dealing with Covid, which ones are using forfeits?  I am obviously in the minority here....I don't want a free win, I want to earn them.....and I dont say that like I am part of the Bills, that is how I personally live my life.

[Ethan in Cleveland]

28 minutes ago, Captain Caveman said:

 

I think he's saying that if a team has enough injuries it would be almost the same as a forfeit.  For example, if we play the Titans Monday and they're down the 10-15 players who have tested positive (and maybe even more if they suspend the players who had outside workouts) what are our chances of losing that game? Sure, anything is possible, and these are strange times, but we should win a game played under those circumstances 95 timers out of 100 or more.

In that scenario it is also a player safety issue. They can't go into a game with less than a full active squad. 

Reschedule or forfeit is the only option. 

[spartacus]

1 minute ago, billsfan89 said:

 

It obviously wouldn't be fair to the rest of the league. The football fan in me would hate to see it BUT The Bills fan in me would love to give the Bills a free win and a free bye week at the same time. Honestly the Titans deserve to be severely punished for their negligence and the NFL failed to add in extra weeks to the season to compensate for this type of scenario.

Titans should be docked draft picks

Bills should get those picks for being directly impacted by postponement / reschedule /disruption

 

[Livinginthepast]

A forfeit is completely warranted. The Titans organization and players have allowed pretty blatant violations of covid rules. This is a pandemic and a potentially killer virus, you cant just slap them on the wrist. At the same time the Bills safety is also paramount. Our players shouldnt have to be exposed to potential dangers because of the actions of a few idiots on the Titans. 

[Playoffs?]

Don’t care what they do but the Bills should absolutely NOT be punished by losing a bye week or a playoff resting week. No way in hell. I’ll take the gifted win between these options.