Early week forecasts for severe weather in Chicago for tonight’s game between the Bears and Green Bay Packers at Soldier Field have been revised to cold, windy but no precipitation. In other words, both teams can rely more on their passing games than the early forecast would have allowed.
Rain is expected in Carolina when the Los Angeles Rams visit the Panthers at Bank of America Stadium. That game is set to kickoff at 1:30 p.m. Pacific Time with the late game scheduled for 5:00 p.m.
In 1975, the National Football League adopted playoff seeding based on regular season records. Before that, home team advantage in the playoffs was determined before the season began on a rotating basis, that is why in 1972 the undefeated Miami Dolphins had to play the American Football Conference Championship Game on the road en route to their perfect season. For the record, the Dolphins beat the Pittsburgh Steelers at Three Rivers Stadium before capping their campaign with a win over the Washington Redskins in Super Bowl VII.
Two things came into play when the NFL adopted the playoff seeding formula based on regular season results. First, end of the year games became much more meaningful and the teams that held leads in their division were not able to coast the final few weeks if a squad from another division could overtake them in the win/loss column.
The seeding formula got the NFL what they wanted, more competition, and pulled the rug out from under the gamblers who took advantage of good teams taking weeks off while the public kept betting on them.
Now, everything that is put in place that dictates this has to happen if that happens is going to have situations where it just doesn’t make sense. Last year, the Minnesota Vikings and Detroit Lions met on the final day of the regular season while holding the best two records in the league. The winner, as the NFC North Division champion, would get the top seed in the playoffs, the loser, now a second-place team, would be relegated behind the four division winners to the fifth slot.