Not everyone is happy with the NFL’s decision to add a Monday night game to Super Wild Card Weekend. The league recently announced that it will hold two wild-card games on Saturday, three on Sunday and a final game on Monday night.
While Patrick Peterson is hoping his team will be one of the NFC’s seven playoff teams, the Vikings cornerback is also hoping Minnesota will not take part in the league’s first Monday night playoff game. Peterson spoke about the league’s playoff change during the latest episode of the “All Things Covered” podcast with Peterson and Bryant McFadden.
“That’s horrible, man,” Peterson said of the Monday night wild-card game. “I understand you want to get more games on TV, but we’ve also got to level the playing field here. That just doesn’t make any sense at all, because what if we play a team [the following week of the playoffs] that played on Saturday?”
With three playoff games slated for Saturday, six teams will have to play just six days after concluding their regular season. The winner of Monday night’s wild-card game will also have a short week in preparation for their divisional round playoff game. That being said, the team that wins the Monday night game will likely be scheduled to play in a Sunday divisional round game as opposed to a Saturday game.
The NFL expanded its playoff field in 2020 from 12 to 14 teams. And while the top two seeds in each conference received byes in previous years, only the top seeds in each conference receive byes in the league’s new playoff format. The Chiefs received the AFC’s bye last season, while the Packers earned the NFC’s lone bye. Kansas City reached the Super Bowl before falling to the Buccaneers, who won three road playoff games before dethroning the defending champions.
While the Monday night game will ultimately lead to more exposure for the league, it doesn’t sit well with Peterson, who surely won’t be a happy camper if the Vikings are one of the two teams playing in the league’s inaugural Monday night wild-card game.
“That’s wild,” Peterson said of the Monday night playoff game. “I hope we don’t ever play in one.”
