It’s strange to look back a year at what we wrote about the schedule release, which was a little bit more about our collective fears and uncertainties than the actual schedule release. Back then, it seemed impossible for a season to occur. The celebratory nature of previewing a football season in itself felt like denial.
This year, with progress on the vaccination front and many stadiums planning to welcome back something resembling full crowds, envisioning games, plotting revenge scenarios and marking calendars feels a little less macabre. We will most certainly have football, with far less discomforting, white-knuckle moments when a player with COVID-19 is traipsing around the sidelines speaking to someone unmasked and we’re all looking around wondering what the NFL knows about personal health and safety that the CDC doesn’t.