Home Sweet Home-Field

With the extreme level of parody in the NFL in the past few years, a unique debate has come up regarding playoff seeding. In 2008, the 8-8 Chargers hosted a playoff game against the 11-5 Ravens. In 2010, the 7-9 Seahawks hosted a playoff game against the 11-5 Saints. And this coming weekend, the 8-8 Broncos will host a playoff game against the 12-4 Steelers. These teams who have worse records are the home teams in the Wild Card round because they won their division and the road teams did not.

Beastmode.

Thus enlies an argument: Should a team host a Wild Card round playoff game just because they win their division, even if they have a worse record than the wild card team? Or should a division title only clinch a playoff berth, and the first round match-ups be determined based on record?

Winning your division is a big deal. You have six very intense games against three of your fiercest rivals. Teams usually get up for these games more than any others, and that is the way it should be. Whether it is reflected by a good record or not, winning your division is more impressive than being a wild card team in all cases. The argument that it is a weak division is irrelevant because a team sets a goal at the beginning of the season to win the division, not to become a wild card team.

It is easy to sit back and say the 12-4 Steelers are a better team this year than the 8-8 Broncos. The difference between the second seed and the fifth seed for the Steelers was allowing a 26-yard touchdown pass with eight seconds remaining in week nine against the Ravens. Meanwhile, the Broncos lost their last three games and, because of the ineptitude of the AFC West, were able to win the division due to tiebreaker over the Chargers and Raiders, who also finished 8-8.

Just one more play!

But winning a division is not about a specific record, it is about having a better record (or holding tiebreakers) than your division opponents. The Broncos did what was necessary to win their division and the Steelers did not. Plain and simple. That is why division champions deserve to host playoff games no matter what the record.

What time is it?

And beginning next week... Everybody is 0-0.