Many of my predictions over the past 60 years or so have gone horribly wrong, among them my call before and during the 2017 Stanley Cup playoffs. I wrote the Penguins couldn’t win the Cup without Kris Letang, double-downed on that before their second-round series against the Washington Capitals and triple-downed on it before Game 7 against the Capitals. Of course, the Penguins won the series and then the Cup.
Really proud of that prophecy.
But I have been right on a few occasions, hard as that might be to believe.
This was on these pages and website on Feb. 4, 2020:
“The NFL will be going to a 17-game season in 2021. I’m sure of it. So what if the NFL and its players are the biggest hypocrites in sports? So what if it’s a blatant money grab by both sides? So what if all the talk about player safety has been just so much hot air?”
If only all my predictions were so guaranteed to be correct.
Art Rooney II was among the NFL owners who approved a 17th game during a vote on Tuesday at the league’s annual meetings. It is the first time the NFL increased its number of games since 1978, when it went from 14 to 16 games.
“This is a monumental moment in NFL history,” Roger Goodell gushed in a statement.
The Steelers’ extra game next season will be against the Seattle Seahawks at Heinz Field, per a formula the NFL concocted. They will play the extra game on the road in 2022.
“The 17-game schedule, I think, will work out well,” Rooney told Steelers fans during a 20-minute question-and-answer session last week. “I think we’ll reduce the preseason by one game. It will be a similar kind of schedule just in terms of the calendar, but we’ll just turn one of the preseason games into a regular season game, which I think all of us would appreciate. I feel good about it. I hope it works.”
The players signed off on the extra game in March 2020 when they approved a new collective bargaining agreement with the owners with a close, contentious vote — 1,019-959, according to the NFL Players Association. About 500 players didn’t bother to vote. Shame on them for not caring about their health and their future.
The players had insisted for years that they never would agree to the 17th game out of concerns for the wear and tear on their bodies. You might have heard NFL football is a brutal game. But in the end, the players sold out for a greater share of league revenues and other benefits. Who didn’t know that would happen?
Principles are one thing.
More money is something else.
More money always wins.
So it is with the owners, as well. An additional week of games means more inventory for the networks. More inventory means higher rights fees. Higher rights fees mean more cash for the owners.
More injuries to the players?
More concussions?
Who cares?
That brings to mind something else I wrote in that February 2020 piece:
“The owners are all for [more football]. That’s one of two things I have in common with those billionaires. The other? I don’t give a damn about player safety, either. I just want to be entertained.”
I’m guessing the majority of fans are happy there will be more NFL football. With betting everywhere these days and fantasy football, a lot of people can’t get enough. The more games, the better.
It’s not our bodies that are battered and bruised, right?
I close with good news.
Two more predictions that are sure to come true:
An 18-game regular season will happen at least by 2030 when the NFL’s current CBA expires. A 20-game season will be inevitable after that.
This prognostication business really isn’t that hard.
Ron Cook: rcook@post-gazette.com and Twitter@RonCookPG. Ron Cook can be heard on the “Cook and Joe” show weekdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on 93.7 The Fan.
First Published: March 31, 2021, 10:00 a.m.
