NFL Playoff Bracket 2012: Broncos Hosting Steelers Shows Seeding Is Laughable

If you weren't aware, the 8-8 Denver Broncos are hosting the 12-4 Pittsburgh Steelers in the Wild Card Round of this season's NFL playoffs. To be honest, this is just ridiculous and it is finally time for a change.

The Broncos are 1-3 against teams that are in the playoffs this season, with their only victory coming against the Cincinnati Bengals back in Week 2. Many would argue the Bengals were still incredibly raw with rookies at both quarterback and wide receiver in Andy Dalton and A.J. Green, respectively.

The Steelers on the other hand have gone 4-4 against playoff teams, but two of those losses came at the hands of the Baltimore Ravens and one from the Houston Texans. The Steelers were able to defeat all the teams they faced who are not in the playoffs, while the Broncos dropped five.

Is it really fair to put a team that played this much better on the road just because they didn't win their division? The Steelers actually tied the Ravens' record but were unable to claim the top spot because they lost both games to their division rival.

This situation echoes what happened in last year's playoffs, where the 7-9 Seattle Seahawks were given home field in the Wild Card Round since they won the NFC West in pathetic fashion. They hosted the New Orleans Saints, who had an overall record of 11-5. Still, they were forced to play on the road because of the formatting that the NFL playoffs follow.

The Seahawks won the game despite being a much worse team in comparison. The Saints played strong all season long, and they deserved to be above a team that couldn't even win half of its games. 

The term "wild card" is a sick joke. Why should a better team be put at a disadvantage just because another division was weak? Wouldn't it be much more fair to just seed the six teams in order of record?

That seems like a much more reasonable idea. Giving home-field advantage to those teams who deserved the higher seed just makes more sense. While a good team should be able to go out and perform no matter what the circumstance, there is no doubt what home-field advantage can do for a team.

If the NFL wants to stick with its seeding method, perhaps the league could adapt a format similar to what the NBA does. The NBA treats its seeding in a very similar fashion, but home court is determined by which team has the better overall record.

That makes sense.

The difference is that the NFL playoffs are one-and-done, while the NBA uses multiple-game series to decide the victor. The advantage of playing on your home turf is just too important, and it is time for the NFL to step up and make a change.

Otherwise, these less-deserving teams will continue to be given what shouldn't be theirs.