PALM BEACH, Fla. - New kickoff rules that went into effect on a trial basis last season are now permanent, but NFL owners tabled the Detroit Lions' proposal to overhaul the seeding of playoff teams.
Rich McKay, the Atlanta Falcons CEO and co-chairman of the NFL's competition committee, indicated the Lions' proposal to seed playoff teams by record without regard to their standing in division garnered only moderate support at this week's annual meeting.
“Some is a good word," McKay said. "I think in playoff seeding, again, I’ve been through that vote four times, three times, and it always gets back to the traditionist says, 'Hey, I want to win the division and I want it to really mean something.'
"Well, something could be that you qualify for the playoffs, that that’s something, but people say, 'No, I want to host a playoff game.' Then the idea is, well, are you diminishing division championships, which we do not want to do."
The Lions submitted three rule- or bylaw-proposal changes this week, including one that would "amend the current playoff seeding format to allow wild card teams to be seeded higher than division champions if the wild card team has a better regular season record."
Currently, divisions winners get the top four seeds and first-round home playoff games in each conference, while wild-card teams are guaranteed to go on the road in the first two rounds.
Had the proposal been in effect last season, the Lions would have been the No. 1 seed in the NFC with a 15-2 record, followed by the Philadelphia Eagles at No. 2, the NFC North runner-up Minnesota Vikings at No. 3 and the NFC East runner-up Washington Commanders at No. 4. The NFC West champion Los Angeles Rams and NFC South champion Tampa Bay ...
