Sarni's Scrolls: NFL Playoffs Edition

Steelers-Bills' move to Monday creates three doubleheaders

The six-game, three-day NFL Wild Card playoff round has turned into a trio of day-night doubleheaders with the postponement of the Pittsburgh Steelers-Buffalo Bills game from Sunday to Monday.

With a huge winter storm descending on Western New York, the game will kick off at 4:30 p.m. EST. The Philadelphia Eagles visit the Tampa Bucs on Monday night.

That leaves no 1 p.m. Sunday game. The Green Bay Packers face the Dallas Cowboys at 4:30, followed by the Los Angeles Rams at Detroit Lions at night.

N.Y. Gov. Kathy Hochul announced the postponement, citing safety concerns with the snow, wind and bitter cold. A travel ban was set to start at 9 p.m. EST

A domed stadium would not have mattered if the fans can't get there safely.

This is the first postponement of an NFL playoff game since Chiefs-Steelers in 2017. That game was moved from Sunday afternoon to Sunday night.

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The Bills-Steelers postponement is a mini-nightmare for the NFL, according to sports media writer Morgan Wick, who tweeted:

"The Monday night playoff games are 4-5 to allow the league to announce divisional sked Sunday night; this is 2-7 in the opposite conference. AFC teams will wait for Monday evening to find out what *day* they play.

"And, of course, there's the potential for another two-day rest disparity like last year... and this time it'll apply if the seeds *hold*. All told, I think the league would have much rather relocated the game than rescheduled it."

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The move to put Saturday night's  Chiefs-Dolphins Peacock Bowl behind a streaming paywall has fans upset.

NBCUniversal paid $110 million for the right to air the game on its three-year-old streaming network. The deal is only for this year, but moving forward, the NFL has said that one wild-card game each year will be intended for a streamer. Amazon was reportedly interested in acquiring this season’s game.

Peacock’s first exclusive regular-season NFL broadcast, on Dec. 23, drew 7.2 million viewers for the Buffalo Bills’ 24-22 victory over the Los Angeles Chargers, or about 25% of the service’s subscriber base of 30 million.

The wild-card matchup will feature the same commercial-free fourth quarter that debuted in December.

Front Office Sports reports that NBCU could have further competition beyond Amazon next year to retain the wild-card game from league partners Disney and CBS, which could put the game on ESPN+ and Paramount+, respectively. (Fox doesn’t have a paid streaming service.)

One way or another, paywall playoffs are now a part of the NFL’s future.

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"USA Today's" Watchability Rankings

1. Rams-Lions (-3)

2. Packers at Cowboys (-7)

3. Dolphins at Chiefs (-5)

4. Browns at Texans (+2)

5. Eagles at Bucs (-3)

6. Steelers at Bills (-10)

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Super Bowl Odds

49ers +220, Ravens +310, Bills +650, Cowboys +750, Chiefs +1000

Eagles +1800, Dolphins +1800, Lions +1800, Browns +3000, Rams +4000

Texans +5000, Bucs +6000, Packers +9000, Steelers +12,000

ETC.

■ ESPN's Jeff Darlington, a native Floridian, in Kansas City reporting pregame from a heated tent: "It's going to feel like an ungodly negative 30 degrees. WHAT ARE WE DOING PEOPLE!"

■ NFL Network reporter James Palmer, also in K.C., wore a hat for the first time.

■ The Dolphins left South Florida: 86°, heat index 90°... Arrived in Kansas City: 10°, wind chill °-6°

■ This is the first NFL postseason without Tom Brady or Peyton Manning since 1998-99.

■ Joe Flacco is 5-0 in wild-card games. A win would move him past Brett Favre into first place.