The Pittsburgh Steelers’ 2021 season is over, already eliminated from the postseason after suffering a 42-21 loss at the hands of Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs. They just barely made the postseason with a 9-7-1 record and a little help from their friends.
This is an offseason of major change, with the retirement of Ben Roethlisberger, the possible retirement of general manager Kevin Colbert, and the decisions about the futures of many important players to be made, such as Joe Haden, Stephon Tuitt, JuJu Smith-Schuster, and others—some already decided, some not.
Aside from exploring their options at the quarterback position, the top global priority, once again, figures to be addressing the offensive line, which they did not do quite adequately enough a year ago. Dan Moore Jr. looks like he may have a future as a full-time starter, but Kendrick Green was clearly not ready. Chukwuma Okorafor was re-signed, but Trai Turner was not. James Daniels and Mason Cole were added in free agency.
These are the sorts of topics among many others that we have been exploring on a daily basis and will continue to do so. Football has become a year-round pastime and there is always a question to be asked. There is rarely a concrete answer, but this is your venue for exploring the topics we present through all their uncertainty.
Question: Outside of logistics for actually attending games, do you even care about the specifics of the schedule?
Bless the NFL. They can stretch out anything and turn it into an event. It’s absolutely incredible how much anticipation they have been able to build over the years for the announcement of exactly when and where the season’s games will be played.
I’m going to be honest: I really don’t care about it, almost at all. The only things I care about are schedule nuances like stretches of home or away games or short intervals between games. At what point of the season a team is scheduled to play another team—that means little to me.
They’re all the same games by the end of the year, either way, and ultimately, it’s impossible to know in May when is the most opportune time to play a specific team, because that can change on a weekly basis relative to player availability and other factors. Whether or not one particular stretch of the schedule is ‘tough’ or not, those games still have to be played.
In other words, I’ve felt zero anticipation for the ‘big day’ when the Steelers’ schedule is going to be released. I already knew all but three of the games they would be playing for years, anyway, since the vast majority of it is on a rotating basis. The when and where? Just wake me up before kickoff.
What about you? How much importance do you place on the actual structure of the schedule? It’s all down to personal preferences, after all, and I certainly don’t begrudge anybody who places more meaning in this than I find myself doing.
