Our favorite things about the 2020 NFL season
LeBron's dad tweets, weird weekday afternoon games, and more! Plus, Week 17 picks.
Hey everyone. It’s gonna be a shorter than usual (i.e. NOT 4,000 words) Post Route today thanks to the holiday. We’ll have picks for you and a little retrospective, but first a quick aside in the spirit of casting aside this screeching banshee of a year:
Thank you for reading. This newsletter has been a port in the storm of bullshit 2020 has dropped on us, and I can’t explain just how much being able to carve out a few hours to figure out why Ben Roethlisberger does or does not suck currently has meant. It’s been humbling to see our reader count grow and the retweets and likes, especially in a year that has thrown shovelfuls of doubt at us for the past 10 months. Having you here makes this all feel a little less impossible, and for that we’re all grateful. (Please consider passing this on to a friend or loved one who might be interested in The Post Route too!)
I started this numbered list before I realized I didn’t have a second point. Go to hell, Adam Gase, I guess?
To celebrate both the new year and the end of the regular season, we each decided to highlight something we loved about this NFL season. Nothing about 2020 was easy, even as a sports fan, but we still found solace in football, sometimes in unexpected places.
Our favorite things about this NFL season
Weird schedules
We probably shouldn’t have even had an NFL season this year; that would have been the responsible thing to do, but responsibility and accountability are just two of many, many norms we’ve decided to eschew in the Trump era. But the pandemic did make the year in pro football a memorable one, helping sow chaos into an already unpredictable year.
Back when all of us on this little newsletter covered the NFL for a full-time job, I used to hate Thursday night games. Featuring teams playing bad games on short weeks, the league wedged it into the schedule to tap one more vein of gold as television viewing went online. It mostly sucked, personally, because it added another impossibly long day to our 80-hour weekly schedule (a conservative estimate).
But this year, now that I don’t have to consume Trumpian levels Adderall just to do the most basic part of my job, games scattered on random days throughout the week are absolutely my favorite. It helps that we’re all stuck at home too.
My favorite time to watch a game has since become catching the Monday afternoon COVID matinee game. Bumped because teams and the league only sometimes pretended to care about the players’ safety (not a new thing for the NFL, despite Adam Schefter’s fluff tweets every Sunday about how great the league is doing in the face of the pandemic). Tuesday games were a treat too.
The problem with Sundays, even for just casual fans, is that it’s a commitment. Unless the game you most want to see is being played in the primetime slot, the early and late afternoon tilts are a big chunk of time crammed awkwardly into a part of the day that also happens to be the best time to do other things, whether that’s some chore around the house or going skiing. Worse still, you can’t just catch whatever game you want; we’re still subject to the arcane broadcast rules that dedicate which contests we can see. And where I live, in New Mexico, that’s almost always a Broncos, Cowboys, or Cardinals game. Yes, you can spend a few hundred bucks and get Sunday Ticket, but that’s just not a priority for most of us, especially when you’re forced into a more modest household budget thanks to your own poor decision to pursue a career in journalism.
The games randomly rescheduled for Monday or Tuesday afternoons aren’t always the ones you want to watch either, but the fact that they’re on at a time day when, quite frankly, my energy level is almost perfectly fit for casual television watching, makes them appealing. It’s the same thing that makes Thanksgiving Day games so great. You don’t have to be invested — hell, you don’t even have to watch every play — to enjoy it either as something to watch or something just to have on in the background.
It’s unlikely the NFL will continue these games once (if) the pandemic ends. That would force more short weeks onto teams and more injuries, something we’re going to see more of with a 17-game season anyway. But, maybe, just maybe, there’s enough there for the NFL to finally consider giving up its stranglehold on Sundays. — RVB
LeBron’s sincere and enthusiastic NFL tweets
I have many, many Twitter grievances — much too long to list, though we could start by eliminating 90 percent of the takes about my favorite sports team, 98 percent of all political tweets, and 100 percent of the Bachelor/Bachelorette ones.
Twitter is designed to enrage and dehumanize, and for some reason, we just can’t seem to quit it. But I’ve found a comforting bright spot on the hellsite this year: LeBron James tweeting about the NFL.
LeBron’s tweets are sorta like Rob Lowe’s NFL hat, except much more endearing. Although he grew up a Cowboys fan* and has shown his support for the Browns throughout the season, it’s clear LeBron simply enjoys watching the NFL in general:
He’ll often tweet about or during random games:
Like many millennials, he likes to celebrate people over teams, and he’ll give shoutouts to the players and coaches you’d both expect (Patrick Mahomes) and not (Sam Darnold):
He’s ready to react to the biggest highlight plays:
He trades corny dad jokes with Tom Brady:
And he offers words of encouragement when a major injury happens:
All of this is in character. LeBron has always loved football and he could’ve had a long and productive NFL career if he hadn’t been, y’know, the greatest basketball player of all time. He’s also been a vocal supporter of other sports, including the WNBA, college football, and baseball.
Yet the earnestness with which he tweets about the NFL and the sheer enjoyment he’s shown as a fan this year has been an elixir to help soothe our cold, cynical hearts.
*He gets crap for this, but two things to consider: LeBron wasn’t even a teenager when Art Modell moved the Browns, and the Cowboys were eeeeverywhere in the ‘90s, when the internet was still novel and far less ubiquitous.
— SH
Bill Belichick’s continued hatred of technology, new and old:
Bill Belichick, 2016:
Bill Belichick, 2019:
Bill Belichick, 2020:
Whether his team is winning or losing, whether he’s bound for the playoffs or next year’s draft, and whether the tech is from 1960 or 2015, Bill Belichick is a raging ball of murder. Consistency is the key to success. — CD
Week 17 picks
Somehow, in the longest year in the 4.5 billion-year history of this planet, the NFL season has flown by. Or maybe it just feels that way to me, since I don’t cover the league on a day-to-day basis anymore and what used to be a grind is now more of a pleasant diversion.
While we have just 16 games left in the regular season, there’s still a lot to be decided in the playoff race, setting up a high-stakes Sunday in Week 17 — just like the NFL wants.
Can the Dolphins ride Tua, without a Fitzmagic safety net, to the postseason? Will the Browns overcome their Covid problems and take down their biggest rival to make the playoffs for the first time in 18 years? Is Kyler healthy enough to beat the Rams? Which NFC East team will bumble its way to a division title? How many teams, besides the Steelers and Chiefs, will be resting their starters?
Last week, I recruited my mom to try her hand at making picks. It was a tough task with so many toss-up games on the schedule, but she acquitted herself well with a 10-6 record. This week might be even more challenging, so good luck to our guest picker, someone very familiar to my mom: my stepdad, Mike.
Mike follows the NFL, though as an East Coaster who likes to go to bed early, he often misses the second half of primetime games. When I visit them (it’s been over a year since I’ve been able to do that), I sometimes catch him up on what he missed when he wakes up at 3 a.m. and I’m getting ready for bed. Mike considers himself a Lions fan, but he knows better than to care too deeply about the outcome of their games. (As a supporter of all the Detroit pro teams, he spends most of his time as a sports fan invested in his fantasy teams.)
He’s not optimistic the Lions will end the season on a winning note, even in a game that holds no significance for either team. However, Mike joins the panel’s majority which feels bullish on the Browns, Cardinals, and Washington all punching their playoff ticket:
I don’t know how confident any of us are in those picks — I basically trust the Ravens and no one else in win-and-in scenarios this week — but I think I speak for all of us when I say I’m looking forward to seeing the drama unfold all day Sunday. — SH
The “I’m trying to be hopeful now that 2020 is over” game: Browns vs. Steelers
It was typical Browns to lose to the wretched Jets in a game that would have secured a playoff berth, as happened last week when the Browns were hit with Covid problems at the worst possible time. It would be typical Browns to lose to the Steelers, the same result as eight of their last 10 meetings (and one of those non-losses was a tie). It would be typical Browns to go 10-6 and miss the playoffs, and not just because that’s what occurred the last time the Browns went 10-6.
I’m tired of the typical Browns. I want to believe this is not a cursed franchise and that good things are still possible.
Even though they won’t be squaring off against Ben Roethlisberger (career record against Cleveland: 24-2-1), it won’t be easy for the Browns. They’ve had to shut down their facilities while dealing with Covid issues:
And despite several players who missed last week being cleared this week, they’ll be without Denzel Ward and Malcolm Smith.
I think they’ll be ready to change the narrative, though. A game against the Mason Rudolph-led Steelers was the low point of Cleveland’s season a year ago, and since then, the Browns have managed to get their act together (more or less) and Myles Garrett has been working hard on redeeming himself. Sunday in Cleveland is when the Browns can finally put all that bad history behind them. Hopefully, anyway. — SH
The “It’ll feel like the preseason” game: Chargers vs. Chiefs
The Chargers nearly beat the Chiefs in Week 2 (and probably should have, if not for being the Chargers). With the No. 1 seed locked down, the Chiefs will be giving some of their starters, including Patrick Mahomes, the week off.
The Chargers will also be missing a few stars, like Keenan Allen and Joey Bosa. So why am I picking them in Kansas City? They’ve won three in a row (each by exactly three points — very unlike the Chargers!) and the Chiefs will be starting Chad Henne, who is still in the league apparently and whose name always leads me to hearing this song in my head.
If the Chargers do win, they’ll be 7-9 on the year and will have a chance at finishing in second place in their division. That, along with a winning streak to end the season and Justin Herbert’s faith in Anthony Lynn, might be enough to convince the brass to keep the head coach around. And that feels very much like the Chargers. — SH
The I’m about to choke under pressure pick: Giants over Cowboys
It was brought to my attention today that I currently stand atop the 2020 Pickwatch standings.
ahahaha i’m gonna blow it
This isn’t that impressive of an accomplishment: hitting 70 percent of your picks without a spread isn’t a terribly valuable asset. But it does throw a wrench into my whole picking plan.
The art to my typically above-average picks is a general lack of thought. Maybe it’s because I digest enough football, but generally I make these picks my running down the week’s slate of action, taking into account injuries, streaks, and home field advantage (or the general lack thereof created by 2020), and throwing a team name onto a spreadsheet in roughly five minutes. If I drop into advanced stats or specific matchups I begin to second guess myself and everything falls to shit. If I quaver over an actual bet at a sportsbook, I might as well write that ticket off as a donation to the casino. If I trust my gut with nothing on the line, things … generally go pretty well!
And my gut this week says the Giants. THE GODDAMN GIANTS. Are gonna win what’s effectively a playoff game for them. Against a Cowboy team on a three-game winning streak. With Daniel Jones and his 14 turnovers in 13 games.
But the Cowboys are on the road where they’re 2-5 and relying on Andy Dalton in a de facto playoff game. Andy Dalton is 0-4 in the postseason with a 57.8 passer rating so, yeah. Maybe I’m stupid for trusting Danny Dimes, but at least my heart is in the right place. Or just a place? I’m not entirely certain. — CD
lakers man
Alright, CD. I see these wacky picks.... but the lions over the Vikings. Why? Don’t go losing your #1 spot and taking me down with ya. I’m in 2nd in mine lol