KB24
04-17-2008, 08:42 AM
Interesting take from blogger Dan Shanoff:
SportingNews.com - The Sporting Blog - Shanoff's Wake-Up Call: NFL Schedule Day? Zzz (http://www.sportingnews.com/blog/the_sporting_blog/entry/view/7980/shanoffs_wake-up_call_nfl_schedule_day?_zzz)
The release of the new NFL schedule is possibly the biggest non-event of the endless football year.
And, make no mistake, the NFL has turned it into a year-round sport: From the preseason to the playoffs to free agency to the draft Combine to owner meetings to the release of each team's opponents to the release of the schedule of those games to the draft itself to minicamp to training camp, it's the league's greatest feat to have stretched a 16-game season into a 52-week pastime.
Because that schedule released yesterday? What does it really mean?
Oh, sure, we can talk about who has the toughest overall schedule (Steelers) or argue what the best single game is (Pats at Colts in Week 9) or wonder if the NFL tips its hand about the rising teams it thinks are ready to break out by their number of national TV appearances (Browns: five times) or how to start balancing bye weeks against the "April 15" version of your fantasy draft cheat sheet, but let's get real: We. Know. Nothing.
Let me remind you: The Patriots sliced through last year's regular season 16-0, then choked the entire thing away in the Super Bowl.
That's not to mock the Pats' season (well, it sort of is); the larger point is to point out the unpredictability of the NFL -- not just from Week 17 to the Super Bowl, but in the canyon stretching from April 15 through Week 17.
I could look at the Pats' schedule this year -- the seemingly easy start, the pair of back-to-back West Coast trips, the Colts game -- and guess: "17-0? Why not!" It doesn't give them any more of an April claim to being a Super Bowl "lock" than any other team.
Basing next season's projections on last season's results is folly; even without considering the inevitability of injuries or performance dropoff (or increase), the NFL's core commitment to parity means teams get better (and worse) in a hurry -- even within the next season.
A tough-looking schedule in April, with the memory of last season still so fresh, will look far different a few weeks into the 2008 season, when you realize your presumptive "toughie" game is suddenly a "gimme," and that "gimme" is suddenly an "uh-oh."
Feel free to scan your favorite team's schedule and begin making wild projections: 13-3! 12-4! 9-7! 1-15! Meanwhile, you can find someone else out there covering every other guess on the spectrum. The consolation: Someone will be right. Probably just not you.
Normally, I'm all for breathless instant history; in this case, unless you're using the schedule to make future travel plans, let's go with a nice calm "wait and see."
SportingNews.com - The Sporting Blog - Shanoff's Wake-Up Call: NFL Schedule Day? Zzz (http://www.sportingnews.com/blog/the_sporting_blog/entry/view/7980/shanoffs_wake-up_call_nfl_schedule_day?_zzz)
The release of the new NFL schedule is possibly the biggest non-event of the endless football year.
And, make no mistake, the NFL has turned it into a year-round sport: From the preseason to the playoffs to free agency to the draft Combine to owner meetings to the release of each team's opponents to the release of the schedule of those games to the draft itself to minicamp to training camp, it's the league's greatest feat to have stretched a 16-game season into a 52-week pastime.
Because that schedule released yesterday? What does it really mean?
Oh, sure, we can talk about who has the toughest overall schedule (Steelers) or argue what the best single game is (Pats at Colts in Week 9) or wonder if the NFL tips its hand about the rising teams it thinks are ready to break out by their number of national TV appearances (Browns: five times) or how to start balancing bye weeks against the "April 15" version of your fantasy draft cheat sheet, but let's get real: We. Know. Nothing.
Let me remind you: The Patriots sliced through last year's regular season 16-0, then choked the entire thing away in the Super Bowl.
That's not to mock the Pats' season (well, it sort of is); the larger point is to point out the unpredictability of the NFL -- not just from Week 17 to the Super Bowl, but in the canyon stretching from April 15 through Week 17.
I could look at the Pats' schedule this year -- the seemingly easy start, the pair of back-to-back West Coast trips, the Colts game -- and guess: "17-0? Why not!" It doesn't give them any more of an April claim to being a Super Bowl "lock" than any other team.
Basing next season's projections on last season's results is folly; even without considering the inevitability of injuries or performance dropoff (or increase), the NFL's core commitment to parity means teams get better (and worse) in a hurry -- even within the next season.
A tough-looking schedule in April, with the memory of last season still so fresh, will look far different a few weeks into the 2008 season, when you realize your presumptive "toughie" game is suddenly a "gimme," and that "gimme" is suddenly an "uh-oh."
Feel free to scan your favorite team's schedule and begin making wild projections: 13-3! 12-4! 9-7! 1-15! Meanwhile, you can find someone else out there covering every other guess on the spectrum. The consolation: Someone will be right. Probably just not you.
Normally, I'm all for breathless instant history; in this case, unless you're using the schedule to make future travel plans, let's go with a nice calm "wait and see."