The trappings of the 2020 NFL schedule release

Ravens Home Opener, M&T Bank Stadium. September 11, 2016 | © Andrew Sgroi. All Rights Reserved

Every year, when the NFL releases its full schedule for the forthcoming season, fans and media opine incessantly on which teams should expect to be helped, or hurt, by the wheres and whens of their match-ups.

It’s human nature, really. With a compact season like the NFL’s, where every game carries significant weight, the schedule release practically begs for the universal exercise of predicting how it will all play out.

Here’s my problem with it all. It never plays out the way you envision it.

Sort of like that trip to an exotic destination which you’ve been saving up, and planning, for many months. You’ve copiously researched the locale, what to do, where to stay, and where to eat. You daydream about every aspect right up to the trip itself and then, when you eventually experience it firsthand, you can’t recall the slightest detail. Because what you envisioned had no bearing in reality.

The realities, then, which impact any NFL team’s actual fortunes are…

Injuries, often to key players and generally at inopportune times.

Bad officiating, because refs are human and their labors are part time.

Coaches with tunnel vision, failing to adapt to in-game scenarios.

Players tapping out, because the season is a grind and no professional—no matter how devoted—can be “on his game” at all times.

And, of course, making a special appearance among all the variables this year: the global COVID-19 pandemic. Who really knows how many, if any, of these games will actually be played?

I certainly don’t, despite my eternal hope and sincere desire that the answer will be “all of them.”

So spare us the prognostications.

Reality beckons.