On another note, a sports writer questions whether there will even be an NFL season this year. Having said that, the tea leaves continue to swirl and things could change quickly.
Too much money involved. There will be an NFL season this year, come hell or high water. NFL owners are like oil wildcatters. Both are going to do what they do: play football, drill for oil, regardless of the odds.
Even if it means playing games with second- and third-string quarterbacks, the games will be played. In fact, they might even be more interesting.
All the owners want to do is get sixteen games played, and into the real season, the playoffs. It's very possible, the virus will finally burn itself out (or we will have a vaccine) by the time of the playoffs.
The link takes you to a CBS story with 32 vignettes: the one game for all 32 teams that could make or break their seasons.
It's worth reading.
The lede:
With less than eight weeks to go until the start of the NFL season, there's still no guarantee that we're even going to have an NFL season, and if we do, there's no guarantee that every game is going to get played.
Due to the coronavirus, there's always a chance that the NFL could be forced to cancel a week or two this year, which would definitely make things interesting, because it's the one league where every game really counts.Three examples:
The thing about the NFL is that teams only get 16 games to prove how good they are, which means every time they lose, they're basically flushing 6.25 percent of their season down the toilet. Although every regular season game is important, some of them are more important than others, and those are the games we're going to take a look at right now.
One. Kansas City Chiefs: week 4 vs. Patriots.
It's tough to find a game on the Chiefs schedule that could "make or break" their season, but there is definitely a short stretch where things could get interesting. After traveling to Baltimore for a game in Week 3, the Chiefs have to turn around and play the Patriots at home in Week 4. A loss to the Patriots would potentially be devastating and that's because it could kill Kansas City's chances of earning a first-round bye in the playoffs (only one team in the AFC will be getting a first-round bye).Two. The Cowboys figure in two games. First, against the Philadelphia Eagles at Dallas:
Philadelphia Eagles: Week 16 at Cowboys. Over the past three years, the NFC East has basically been a two-team race as the Cowboys and Eagles are the only two that have won a division title in that period, and it's starting to feel like this season is going to be more of the same.
Although the Eagles have some huge games on their schedule (San Francisco, Seattle, New Orleans), it feels like this game in Dallas will be their biggest, and that's because there's a good chance the winner will end up winning the division.Three. Finally, and this is a no-brainer. The most important game for the Cowboys this year will be their opening game, week 1 at Rams.
There aren't many teams in the NFL that are going to be under more pressure in Week 1 than the Dallas Cowboys, and Dak Prescott is likely going to be feeling a lot of that, especially since he'll be playing out the season on his one-year franchise tag deal.
Another person who will be feeling the pressure is Coach Mike McCarthy.
In his first game as Cowboys coach, he gets to face a team that Dallas throttled 44-21 last year. That's notable because if McCarthy starts off his Cowboys tenure by losing to a team that Jason Garrett beat by 23 points, then McCarthy's popularity will quickly take a nosedive in Dallas. Basically, if the Cowboys lose this game, everyone in Dallas is going to be feeling some serious pressure after just one week of the season, and most of that pressure will be felt by Prescott and McCarthy.Does anyone even remember Jason Garrett?
