The Cincinnati Bengals voiced their displeasure with the NFL’s ruling on playoff seeding before their matchup with the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday. They voiced those frustrations again during the game.
Following a one-yard touchdown run late in the first quarter, Joe Mixon pulled out a touchdown celebration he’d likely been very anxious to do.
Mixon burst through the line and put his team up 10-0. He proceeded to pull a real coin out of his sock and flip it, a clear reference to the NFL’s decision that a coin flip could determine seeding thanks to the cancellation of last week’s game against the Buffalo Bills.
Mixon’s teammates gathered around and took part in the celebration after the Bengals were the only team to disagree with the league’s decision in the wake of Damar Hamlin’s cardiac arrest on the field.
Why did Joe Mixon do coin toss celebration with Bengals?
Because the Buffalo Bills and Cincinnati Bengals were unable to finish the game on Monday night, the playoff seeding was thrown out of balance.
The teams were in a fight for the second seed and the Bengals hadn’t wrapped up the AFC North.
Since the game was officially cancelled, the Cincinnati-Baltimore matchup in Week 18 couldn’t have determined the winner. The AFC’s home-field matchups couldn’t, either.
As a result, the league voted to decide the location (if a tiebreaker couldn’t be found) via coin toss. Cincinnati was the lone dissenter in that vote as they feel they have the most to lose in this situation.
Following their first score on Sunday, Mixon decided to mock the NFL’s decision, clearly having prepared to do so by putting the coin in his sock in the event of a touchdown.
This could very well be one of the most unprecedented postseasons in NFL history as a result of the cancelation, but Mixon and his team aren’t happy with what might come of it.
They lost the Super Bowl last season and look like an even stronger team this year, so any missteps (through no fault of their own) could be detrimental.
