The Steelers have kept their flickering playoff hopes alive for yet another week and I’m reminded of a recent conversation with a bartender at a Christmas party.
He’s a guy who grew up with me and my brother in the old neighborhood – got out as quickly as possible as most of us did – and he’s well aware of my time spent as a sportswriter.
This was a few weeks back and although the Steelers were extreme longshots to qualify for postseason play, the faithful retained hope. That hope has gotten greater with each additional win and each additional implosion by NFL “contenders.”
The bartender had volunteered the point, one based in part on the storied Super Bowl resume of the Steelers, that it means almost nothing just to make the playoffs unless you enter with the kind of team that can go all the way.
Trust me, that doesn’t describe this Pittsburgh team. The offense is pedestrian and relies on the defense to all but win the games.
That won’t cut it against the likes of Kansas City, Cincinnati, Buffalo, even the resurgent Los Angeles Chargers in the AFC.
And yet, should the Steelers beat Cleveland next weekend, and both Buffalo beats New England and the New York Jets knock off Miami, the Steelers are in the playoff field.
But, by making the playoffs, a team penalizes itself in the college draft and also in the next year’s schedule, in which better teams tend to play tougher schedules based on the previous season’s standings.
Let’s face it, the NFL has gone the way of the NHL in terms of trying to christen even more teams as “playoff” participants.
Create more divisions, ramp up the number of wild-card teams, and pretty soon being in the playoffs means little more than you aren’t in the bottom half of the league. The NFL almost is there, with 32 total teams and 14 making the playoffs.
The NHL already is at an even split with 16 of 32 teams making the Stanley Cup playoffs and 16 failing to do so.
Major League Baseball and the NBA have similar math to the NFL in terms of playoff fields in comparison to total teams.
As the playoff fields expand, such as with the NFL, it’s a virtual mathematical certainty that teams at or near .500 are going to make it. You tell me how impressive it is to go 9-8 in a 17-game schedule.
They might as well forego the Lombardi Trophy awarded for winning the Super Bowl and follow society in awarding participation trophies.
In the final analysis, the bartender had it right. If the Steelers make the playoffs, big deal. This still has been a modest season.
If they don’t make the playoffs, that’s probably the more fitting, and beneficial, outcome.
Sam Ross Jr's site 