Chiefs help prove NFL’s expanded playoff format is bad for the game

When the National Football League first announced its intention to add a seventh playoff team from each conference going forward, it felt the same as any other such announcement from the league—like a cash grab.

Just like the recently added 17th regular-season game (and the forthcoming 18th game), everyone involved knows it’s bad for the game of football. It’s (even more) dangerous for the players. It makes for lame competition. It’s intended to do one thing only: line the pockets of those rich enough to already own and operate an NFL franchise.

The Kansas City Chiefs helped prove that over the weekend.

Instead of allowing the second-seeded Chiefs to relax for an extra week with the first-round bye that used to be available to the top two teams in each conference, the Chiefs were forced to play. The results were predictable. The game was one-sided. The Chiefs were lucky not to come away with any new major injuries.

The NFL is watering down its product for the sake of more money.

Maybe this is even what Ben Roethlisberger was describing when providing a weird quote on Wednesday to reporters in Pittsburgh:

Talking heads tried to twist Big Ben’s words into some sort of joke or reverse psychology—and maybe it was this oddly motivational material for the Steelers—but maybe it’s as straightforward as it sounds. Maybe the Steelers longtime quarterback was admitting the competition wasn’t there. Maybe it was a version of, “Everyone knows what the outcome will be, but the NFL has forced this on us all so let’s have some fun.”

The Chiefs had already rocked the Steelers at Arrowhead three weeks prior by 26 points. No one needed or even wanted a repeat of that one-sided affair. The Chiefs didn’t even have tight end Travis Kelce or linebacker Nick Bolton in that previous game. Even Vegas oddsmakers had the Chiefs listed as 13-point favorites, a playoff record for the biggest spread.

The reason the odds were stacked against the Steelers in the postseason stems from the reality that the Steelers should have never made the postseason. That’s not to say they lucked into the No. 7 spot (although they did). Instead, it’s saying that no team should occupy a No. 7 seed. It’s just bad for the game.

In case it seems as if we’re magnifying a single game’s results—a 21-point win for the Chiefs, by the way, in a game that wasn’t even that close until Pittsburgh gained some garbage time points—the NFC came out the same way. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers hosted the Philadelphia Eagles for a proper beatdown. They were up by 31 points heading into the fourth quarter before the Eagles put up 15 in the final 15 to make the score seem closer than it was.

Neither opponent for the Chiefs or Bucs provided any real competition whatsoever. Both games were over far before they were officially over, and it’s not as if any team learned all that much about themselves in the process. Very good teams take care of average teams and that’s what so many of us watched during the NFL’s Wild Card weekend.

Some fans might be fine with this arrangement—this overstuffed menu of football offerings. It’s easy to hear the retorts here, “Don’t watch it if you don’t like it.” But that’s not the point. The reality is that Patrick Mahomes and company were not only forced to play an extra 17th game in the regular season in 2021 but they also had to play an extra playoff game, too. Imagine the response if Tom Brady or Patrick Mahomes had been injured this weekend.

The modern game is trending toward squeezing more from players than ever for the sake of more money, and it doesn’t matter if the product is quality or not. The focus is quantity. The NFL had a great thing going. Its popularity has usurped any other sport to become the true national pastime. The saying is true that a person can have “too much of a good thing,” and the NFL’s new playoff format is proof positive.