OPINION:
Unlike baseball, football is a sport with major postseason implications — so canceling a game it is not a viable option (“NFL will not resume Bills-Bengals game,” Web, Jan. 5). While I wish injured Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin a full recovery, leaving this game unfinished sets a dangerous precedent for the future.
The league got through all kinds of rescheduling in 2020 due to COVID-19 after too many players tested positive. It should thus have resumed this game last Tuesday night, or at least announced a decision on when the game would resume. Canceling it entirely is grossly unfair to both the Buffalo Bills and the Cincinnati Bengals, not to mention their fans.
I was at the Washington Redskins game in which Alex Smith broke a leg. I’ve been at races in which a runner has collapsed and died. But they didn’t end the game for the broken bone or send all the other runners home when the one runner collapsed. And a player died during an NFL game in 1971 and the game was completed anyway.
This game should be finished prior to the beginning of the postseason. Other options are absurd and unnecessary.Â
JAMES SCARBOROUGH
Arlington, Virginia
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