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Jan. 6 (UPI) -- The NFL announced late Thursday that Monday Night Football's postponed game between the Buffalo Bills and the Cincinnati Bengals has been canceled. The Week 17 game at Paycor Stadium had been indefinitely postponed after Damar Hamlin of the Bills suffered cardiac arrest during the first quarter.
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The safety had collapsed to the field after tackling Tee Higgins of the Bengals near the 50-yard line with less than 6 minutes in the opening frame. First responders were able to restore Hamlin's heartbeat, and the injured player was transported to the hospital where he remains in critical condition.
The NFL said in a statement late Thursday that Commissioner Roger Goodell has informed all clubs of the decision to not resume the suspended game.
"This has been a very difficult week," Goodell said. "We continue to focus on the recovery of Damar Hamlin and are encouraged by the improvements in his condition as well as the tremendous outpouring of support and care for Damar and his family from across the country."
The NFL said it decided to not complete the game as it will not affect either of the team's ability to qualify for the postseason, while resuming or replaying the game would postpone the start of the playoffs, which would affect all 14 qualifying clubs.
Cancelling the game, however, does create potential inequities, and all club teams will vote Friday on a revision to the postseason.
The NFL said the teams will consider to hold the AFC Championship game at a neutral site in the event that either Buffalo or Cincinnati qualifies as the road team and the participating teams played an unequal number of games and both could have been the number one seed and hosted the game had all AFC clubs played the full 17-game regular season.
Another situation concerns an opening-round postseason game between the Bengals and the Baltimore Ravens.
The two teams are scheduled to meet Sunday, and if Baltimore wins it would have bested Cincinnati twice during the season. However, if they are to meet again in the first round of the post season, Cincinnati would host as it would have a higher winning percentage than Baltimore as it would have played one fewer game.
To resolve this, the NFL suggests that if the two meet in the opening round then a coin flip will be used to determine the site of the game.
"As we considered the football schedule, our principles have been to limit disruption across the league and minimize competitive inequities," Goodell said.
"I recognize that there is no perfect solution. The proposal we are asking the ownership to consider, however, addresses the most significant potential equitable issues created by the difficult but necessary, decision not to play the game under these extraordinary circumstances."
The announcement from the NFL comes after Hamlin's doctors at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center told reporters Thursday that while their patient remains in critical condition, he is awake and can move his hands, feet and head.
The second-year safety remains in the trauma intensive care unit, but his doctors said his condition, though still critical, has improved since he arrived Monday night.
"There's been substantial improvement in his condition over the past 24 hours," Dr. Timothy Pritts said. "We had significant concern about him after the injury and after the event that happened on the field, but he's making substantial progress."
