Lions receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown is right. A 14-win team shouldn’t be on the road in the playoffs — except when playing a 15-win team. (Or a 14-win team that holds the tiebreaker.)
Generally speaking, it’s unfair for a team with a better record to be forced to travel to face a team with a lesser record.
With 2002 realignment, which created eight four-team divisions, it happens from time to time. The most glaring example came in 2010, when the 7-9 Seahawks hosted the 11-5 Saints in a wild-card game.
Some argued that Seattle’s win proved it was the better team. Play that game in the Superdome, however, and the Saints would have won.
Division winners with lesser records have hosted wild-cards with better records more than a few times. Last year, it happened twice: 11-6 Eagles at 9-8 Buccaneers and 11-6 Browns at 10-7 Texans. (The home team won both games.)
This year, the problem extends beyond the loser of Sunday night’s showdown between the 14-2 Vikings and 14-2 Lions having to face on the road a team with as few as nine wins. It’s also possible if not likely that a 12-win team (Commanders or Packers) will travel to face a 10-win team.
But the current arrangement is never changing. The official version is that the league regards division championships as special. The unofficial version is that the owners don’t want to surrender the one-in-four annual chance of hosting a playoff game.
It’s a simple mandate. Win the division, host at least one playoff game. Even if the four worst teams in the league are clustered in one division, one of those teams will host a playoff game. That’ll happen regardless of whether the wild-card opponent has a 15-2 record or, in theory, 16-1. (Two teams in the same division could split their season series, beat everyone else, and have the tie determined by strength of victory or whatever.)
So, yes, the rule should change. But, no, it never will. Owners would much rather want a 25-percent shot, every year, at having a home game in the wild-card round.
