The NFL season is upon us and I might watch a game or two throughout. But, I’m not going to be a fanatic about it.
Where once my job would have required me to follow the league slavishly, now I’m free to pick and choose and, most important, just say no when the league’s sickening virtue signalling and uneven product induces nausea.
Seriously, can we just end the cloying field messages and helmet stickers?
The season opens tonight with a made-for-TV rivalry game between the defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles and the self-proclaimed America’s Team, the Dallas Cowboys.
These are the Cowboys, who haven’t won a Super Bowl since the 1995 season, when current broadcaster Troy Aikman was quarterback and they prevailed in Super Bowl XXX over your Steelers.
I covered that game in Arizona, never dreaming it was the curtain call for Cowboys success.
These days, the Cowboys pay quarterback Dak Prescott an average of $60 million a season to fail in the clutch and miss a lot of games due to injury.
The NFL folks and their broadcasting proxy will have to turn the hype machines on full to make tonight’s game interesting. But, if football fans are inclined to watch, the majority of the viewing public can find it on NBC.
There is a Friday game coming between Kansas City and San Diego, which I couldn’t watch even if I wanted to do so because it’s been bid out to YouTube. I could, however, watch a delayed broadcast beginning at midnight on the NFL Network.
I think I will pass, for a variety of reasons, including not wanting to be subjected to countless shots of Taylor Swift in some private box rooting on Mr. Taylor Swift, who plays tight end for the Chiefs.
The way the pop-culture crowd has glommed onto the power couple provides a fitting metaphor for the increasingly vacuous state of the populace.
But, you’re here to get my thoughts on the prospects of the Steelers, right?
I fall into the crowd that expects the team to slip into the playoffs, and quickly exit.
This relative success will come despite the presence of Aaron Rodgers at quarterback, scheduled to make about $14 million to slip out of his nursing home on weekends and, before lining up, find someone on the sideline to hold his walker.
I don’t expect Rodgers to make it through the entire season without missing lots of time due to injury and/or lack of production. Simply put, he’s a warm body the Steelers are hoping will make a few plays, avoid major gaffes and just hand the ball off to running backs while the Steelers defense is expected to keep the opposition in check.
The greatest thing the Steelers have going for them is yet another soft schedule.
Perhaps you have read on ESPN and other outlets that the Steelers have the 10th toughest schedule in the NFL. This is based on simplistic mathematical extrapolation using last year’s records for this year’s opponents.
That is the sort of rear-view mirror analysis that gives us those wildly incorrect national jobs numbers that need to be revised severely after the fact.
More telling is the schedule work of the people at sharpfootballanalysis.com. Simply put, they follow the money, as in the expectations of bettors for teams’ 2025 wins and losses.
Based on that, the Steelers’ schedule is 24th in terms of strength out of 32 teams.
Just look at the facts. The Steelers open with the New York Jets, an annual clown show that can be expected to continue this season. And it just happens to be Rodgers’ latest former team, What a coincidence!
Next up is a Seattle team that went 10-7 last year, but figures to slip this season due to personnel changes.
Then come the New England Patriots (another shell of a franchise) and the Minnesota Vikings. The Vikings exemplify why this Steelers schedule is soft and cheesey.
Yes, the Vikings went 14-3 in the 2024 regular season. But, the mirage was exposed in the final week of the regular season and a first-round loss in the playoffs, by a combined margin of 58-18.
If you think Minnesota will win 14 games this season, you are as delusional as Democrat politicians supporting illegals, criminals, transgenders in women’s sports, violent protesters, drug runners and the welfare bum class.
The Steelers easily could be 4-0 ahead of their bye week and, coming out of that face perennial sad sack Cleveland. Dare we dream, 5-0?
With that kind of a headstart on the season, it would take a total collapse to keep the Steelers from the playoffs.
But, once there the competition gets stiffer and the Steelers will exit quickly.
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