For the second time this offseason, the Detroit Lions鈥� proposal to dramatically restructure NFL playoff seeding has failed to gather enough momentum.
The Lions on Wednesday reportedly withdrew a bylaw proposal to seed playoff teams 1-7 by record instead of giving division winners the top four seeds, a format that鈥檚 been in place since the AFL-NFL merger in 1970.
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Under the proposed format, which was set to be voted on Wednesday at the NFL鈥檚 annual spring meetings in Minneapolis, each conference鈥檚 playoff would have still consisted of four division winners and three wild-card teams. However, those seven teams would have been seeded by record, with reseeding to be done after each round. If two teams had the same record, the tiebreaker would first go to the division winner (rather than head-to-head matchups).
The bylaw would have required 24 votes to pass.
The NFL Network and ESPN first reported that the bid had been withdrawn.
The Lions鈥� proposal was initially set to be voted on 鈥� but was eventually tabled 鈥� at the NFL鈥檚 annual league meetings in March. It was there that Lions president and CEO Rod Wood revealed the league actually approached Detroit about making the proposal after comments from wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown went viral on social media ahead of Detroit鈥檚 Week 18 winner-take-all matchup against the Minnesota Vikings.
Minnesota was forced to go on the road in the first round of the playoffs despite a 14-3 regular season record after losing to Detroit in the finale, 31-9.
鈥淚 think the rule should be changed 鈥� having a 14-win team having to go on the road is kind of crazy,鈥� St. Brown said ahead of the Week 18 matchup.
According to Wood, NFL executive vice president of football operations Troy Vincent saw St. Brown鈥檚 comments and 鈥渞eached out to (Wood) and said, 鈥業 tend to agree with him. Would you mind partnering us with a proposal on that?鈥欌€�
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Among the reasons for the rule change listed in Detroit鈥檚 original proposal were 鈥渃ompetitive equity. Provides excitement and competition in late-season games. Rewards the best-performing teams from the regular season.鈥�
One of the more frequent reasons cited for not supporting the change at the annual league meetings in March was to maintain the importance of winning the division.
鈥淓very six years this topic comes up,鈥� Denver Broncos head coach Sean Payton said. 鈥淲e will be talking about this six years from now, hopefully. 鈥� I think winning the division鈥檚 important. I like how our playoff format is laid out, especially compared to any other sport. Again, this is the third go-around of this topic (in my time), and it鈥檒l continue to repeat itself, but I think we would vote against reseeding.鈥�
If the Lions want to host a home game next season, they'll have to come out on top in the NFC North meat grinder once again.