Brandon Staley Won't Consider Playing For Tie in Week 18 vs. Raiders

Staley: “I think we all respect the game and the integrity of the game far too much to be complicit in something like that.”

A peculiar scenario has a chance to play out on Sunday Night Football to conclude Week 18. 

If the Steelers beat the Ravens on Sunday and the Jaguars beat the Colts, both the Chargers and Raiders can secure a playoff spot if the two teams tie in the regular-season finale. Such a situation may have prompted the strangest broadcast in NFL history, in which both teams could have exchanged kneel downs for 70 minutes of game time. Chargers coach Brandon Staley dismissed the potential scenario on Tuesday. 

“I think we all respect the game and the integrity of the game far too much to be complicit in something like that,” Staley said on the Rich Eisen Show. “We're going to do everything we can do win this game.”

With all the Twitter talk about #BoltUp + #RaiderNation tying on @SNFonNBC to both make the #NFLPlayoffs, we HAD to run it by Chargers head coach Brandon Staley — it went about how we thought:#NFL#MBVans pic.twitter.com/58H4KPk7R9

— Rich Eisen Show (@RichEisenShow) January 4, 2022

The Chargers enter Week 18 at 9–7, tied with the Raiders for second in the AFC West. Los Angeles simply needs to win or tie to reach the postseason, while Las Vegas needs a win along with a Colts loss. The Raiders can also make the playoffs is they lose given a Colts loss and Steelers loss. 

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Staley is in his first season as Los Angeles's head coach. He served as the Rams defensive coordinator in 2020. 

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