Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin collapses on MNF: Timeline of events
Here’s everything you need to know about Buffalo Bills’ Damar Hamlin collapsing on the field during MNF. More updates to come.
USA TODAY
Now that the NFL has announced Monday night’s Buffalo Bills-Cincinnati Bengals game will not be played this week, fantasy football leagues face a difficult decision on what to do about an incomplete Week 17 schedule.
The matchup of two high-powered offenses figured to play a major role in determining season-long fantasy championships with most leagues conducting their title games this week.
However, after Bills safety Damar Hamlin collapsed on the field Monday night, the NFL suspended the game with 5:58 remaining in the first quarter.
Fantasy managers counting on Josh Allen, Joe Burrow, Joe Mixon, Stefon Diggs, Ja’Marr Chase and others on the two teams will get little to no production from them in the most important game of the season.
OPINION: Tragic moment with Bills’ Damar Hamlin reminds us NFL players are human
OPINION: After Hamlin’s cardiac arrest, NFL had no choice but to suspend game
OPINION: ESPN’s immediate coverage of Hamlin situation done with right tone
Among the major fantasy football websites, most posted announcements to explain how they were handling the situation.
Yahoo looked to provide clarity with a detailed post, while counting all stats accumulated until the game was suspended.
Week 17 standings will update for now, but scoring updates will be applied once a decision regarding the Bills-Bengals game status is made by the NFL.
Yahoo’s approach was slightly different from MyFantasyLeague.com‘s:
The final stats for week 17 have been processed now, and your league standings have been updated. The stats do not include the partial game stats from the Monday night Bengals-Bills game since the NFL declared that the game will not be played this week. Should the NFL reschedule this game at a later date those stats will be applied to that week.
RealTime Fantasy Sports previously had provisions in place for suspended games, which it enacted.
“(I)f the game is canceled or re-scheduled for any time AFTER this week then all Bills/Bengals will receive 0 points.”
However, Yahoo, MFL, RTSports and other sites do allow the commissioners of individual leagues to enact their own solutions, such as awarding points manually from Week 18 games to the Week 17 matchup, moving the title game to Week 18 or combining points from both weeks into a single total score.
Other options could include calling the league championship matchup a draw, declaring co-champions and/or donating the league’s prize money to charity (such as Hamlin’s toy drive).
Sports betting impact
Sports betting sites such as FanDuel, DraftKings, BetMGM and Tipico Sportsbook have voided bets and daily fantasy contests involving the Bills-Bengals game.
However, FanDuel is counting the stats from Monday’s game in its season-long best ball contests.
Over the past two seasons, when COVID-19 caused several NFL games to be postponed, major fantasy sites extended their weekly scoring period to include games moved as late as Wednesday.
However, those instances were much different because the NFL was able to give teams advance notice of when their games would be rescheduled. The Bills and Bengals playing on Monday night complicated the NFL’s timeline even more because postponing the game any later in the week would leave only a few days of rest before the Week 18 schedule begins on Saturday – with the opening round of the playoffs looming the following week.
