The Chicago Bears will host the Los Angeles Rams in the Divisional Round on Sunday at 5:30 p.m. CT, a scheduling decision that has drawn criticism because both teams played their Wild Card games on Saturday.
While the extra rest may seem nice, other teams were not given the same benefit with the 49ers, Bills, and Texans all facing short weeks due to the league’s playoff scheduling.
This caused Super Bowl winning head coach Tony Dungy to publicly question the fairness of the playoff slate, arguing that competitive balance and player recovery are being compromised in favor of television ratings.
“NFL playoff scheduling is not fair. It might produce good ratings but it’s not fair,” Dungy wrote on social media. “This late in the season recovery time is crucial and it is not given equally.”
Tony Dungy sounds off
GettyBears Head Coach Ben Johnson
Dungy’s biggest criticism involved the Bears-Rams matchup itself. Both teams played on Saturday during the Wild Card round, but the NFL scheduled their Divisional Round game for Sunday rather than Saturday.
Meanwhile, the San Francisco 49ers played on Sunday in the Wild Card round and are now scheduled for a Saturday Divisional matchup, leaving them with a shortened recovery window.
In the AFC, the Buffalo Bills will have just six days to recover after beating the Jags before they face the Broncos, while the Monday night Wild Card game also forced the Texans into a short week and road trip against the Patriots.
The question Dungy keeps returning to is simple: if the Chicago Bears and Rams both played Saturday, why not schedule them again on Saturday?
“Rams & Bears played Saturday games. They will face each other on Sunday with an extra day of rest,” Dungy wrote. “49ers played on Sunday and will face Seattle on Saturday-short week of recovery. Why?”
Bears caught in a bigger league debate
GettyBears WR DJ Moore
What makes the criticism even worse is that the league has already acknowledged this issue in the past.
“Several years ago, the league did away with Monday Night games in Week 18 because it created a disadvantage if one of those teams made the playoffs,” Dungy added. “Now we create that disadvantage.”
By spreading the Wild Card round across Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, the NFL has reintroduced the exact imbalance it once tried to solve, only now in the most important games of the season.
From the Bears’ perspective, the Sunday slot isn’t a disadvantage. Chicago benefits from extra rest, preparation time, and recovery heading into a physical matchup with the Rams. But the broader optics are harder to ignore.
The NFL has long claimed player safety as a priority. Scheduling playoff games that force certain teams into short weeks while others receive extra rest goes against that messaging.
Sure the league does have a history of placing a No. 1 seed in a Saturday Divisional Round slot, but this year’s configuration has left people struggling to find a consistent logic. If rest truly matters, then the Bears-Rams decision feels like a missed opportunity to apply it evenly.
NFL Facing Criticism Over Bears-Rams Playoff Decision