I admit that I am like most fans of professional football in that I get excited for the release of the upcoming season’s schedule but for different reasons perhaps.
For me, it signals that we are extremely close to the NFL Draft and that the season itself is drawing nearer as well. What I don’t understand is why so many fans and experts enjoy getting caught up in their teams’ pending match-ups with opponents based upon last year’s results and divisional rotations.
Look, I get it. We like to view the schedule so we can tell relatives when not to have weddings and when to plan our pilgrimages to the ‘burgh. The NFL schedule release creates fun and exciting talking points for everyone to gab about but do they really merit any true conversation? We have no idea what some of these teams on the schedule of the Pittsburgh Steelers are going to look like by the time we even get around to playing them.
For example, heading into last season, how many of you had circled two wins against Cleveland? Oops! How many of you had victories against Oakland and San Diego in the ‘W’ column? D’oh! And I’m sure like myself, you also had a win over Tennessee too didn’t you? Gosh darn it!
This is what I’m talking about. You can’t predict injuries and you can’t predict turnovers anymore than you can honestly predict these games before guys have even broken a sweat in training camp.
Now that the 2013 schedule has been released should we start penciling in wins and losses? I try not to as much as possible because I’ve learned my lesson. I’d love to tell you that you can write down wins against Detroit, Cleveland, the Jets and another in London against the Vikings but I’m not going there and I caution you as well.
Oh and by the way, the Steelers play in Oakland again. Should we circle that one as well?
Marc Uhlmann writes for and co-owns www.steelcityblitz.com. Follow him on Twitter @steeldad and follow the website at @SCBlitz. He can be heard Mondays on Trib-Live Radio at 4pm ET talking Steelers.
