Ty's 2020 NFL Preview

I have gotten some messages from various people online asking me about my NCAA and NFL previews for the upcoming year.

I stated last week that I was not going to do an NCAA football preview because this season is the most asterisk worthy season of all. There are two power 5 conferences, among many other D-1 conferences, that are postponing until winter or fall. There are a ton of major players, first round talent, that have opted out. Oklahoma's coach Lincoln Riley just stated yesterday that he will not divulge any more positive CoronaVirus cases within the team because it "poses a competitive disadvantage", which is wrong on so many levels. Two major programs, TCU and Baylor had games recently canceled for this Saturday due to positive COVID tests. This NCAA season is going to be a mess, and even though I am sure I will tune in from time to time, I will not feel good about it, and the product on the field is going to be messy. I am also certain there is going to be stops and starts, just like MLB, and as the season wears on, more guys, prominent guys, will opt out when they start seeing teammates getting sick. The NCAA is a mess, and this upcoming college football year is proof positive they have no control, and they don't care about the kids. That is my NCAA football preview. Whoever wins is not a real champion, there, I said it.

The NFL is just as bad, if not worse. They have done little to nothing to be prepared for the inevitability that is CoronaVirus wreaking havoc on this season. The NFL, and the higher ups in the NFL have just acted like they are immune to this pandemic. I'm sure they figured that things would be under some kind of control right now. Things are worse, the owners had no plan and now they are just steamrolling ahead with the season, starting this Sunday. There have been notable guys, like JJ Watt and Aaron Donald, who have said that they will not wear a mask while on the field. I checked into "Hard Knocks" on HBO the other night, and hardly anyone was wearing a mask. Well, players were not really wearing masks. Coaches had them on, but for the players it seemed like a suggestion not a rule. And there have been positive cases. As of yesterday there were five positives that were relayed to the media. Who knows how many positives there actually are, but the five they put out there were guys of no consequence. If it happens to a big name guy, things might be different right now. But, it hasn't happened to a "star" yet, so the NFL may think they are doing okay. Also, Roger Goodell was quoted yesterday saying that he wouldn't be surprised if they don't get a full 16 game season in. The NFL, like I said, had no plan, and now they are starting to hedge their bets, a few days before the season starts.

I also have very mixed feelings about the season. Sure it will be nice to see Green Bay play, but how long will they actually play? Which important player will get CoronaVirus first? How soon until half the team is on the COVID list, or they just opt out. You could insert any team into this spot too. I just picked Green Bay because they are my team. Look at the Patriots. They have something like nine guys that opted out way early on. One of the Chiefs starting O lineman opted out to go work on the frontlines in his hometown. They also had their star from the Super Bowl last year, running back Damien Williams opt out to be with his sick mother. More and more of that, I feel, is going to happen as the season wears on. How soon until someone like Patrick Maholmes or Aaron Rodgers or Lamar Jackson see guys around them getting the virus and just decide to sit? I don't think it will be that long. I think they want to play beyond just this season. We still know so little about this virus, and I feel like going out, banging and sweating and spitting and bleeding and yelling at one another on a football field is the easiest way to spread it, and start a massive second wave.

To make everything even crazier, some stadiums are thinking of allowing fans?! Are you kidding me?! That is so dumb. Anyone that goes to see a football game live this year should have to sign a waiver, spend gobs of money on the seats and be willing to deal with the repercussions. I love football. College football is my favorite sport to watch. I love doing fantasy football, I even did a draft which felt so weird and so unfulfilling compared to other years. I enjoy wasting fall weekends watching football. But this year is different. We have much bigger problems facing the country. We need new people in office. We need to find a way to quell this pandemic. We need to try and get out of this pandemic. We need to stop systemic racism. We need to defund the police. Watching football is about the one millionth most important thing right now. It needs to be way, way down the list.

If I had to guess, if someone said, tell me what will happen with the NFL this year, I would say it is going to be messy, perhaps messier than MLB. They will try and play, they have made that clear. But I feel by week four they will have to shut down for a while due to a rise in cases. Then they will come back in two weeks, play for two weeks, then have to shut down again. I think, at most, they will get all 32 teams to play twelve games at best. I think the playoffs will be weird, and not great. I think too many guys will opt out, get sick, get injured or say they are injured because this year is as risky as it gets. If I had to pick a Super Bowl, I really don't know. I would guess Kansas City from the AFC because they have the most talent and returning guys. From the NFC, hmmm, I guess I will go with, I don't know, how about the Saints. They have some solid guys, Drew Brees is still a sell out punk though.

I have zero faith in these picks at all people. It could very well be Miami and Carolina, or Washington and Denver, or even Detroit and Cincinnati in the Super Bowl simply based on how many players get sick or opt out. This season is going to be filled with problems, it will stop and start, guys will leave midway and it will just be sloppy. I hope I am proven wrong. I would love to come on this site and eat crow. But I would be terrified if I were an NFL player, especially a young guy, because this offseason has proven that the owners, GM's and the commissioner do not have a plan, nor do they truly care to have one. This is all messy, it stinks and I wish they would wait until there is some kind of slowing down before just running these guys out there.

That is my 2020 NFL preview. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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