The gulf between the end of the previous season’s Super Bowl and the start of the new NFL season seems like an interminable one. Sure, the draft, training camp and the preseason games satiate fans’ desire, but only briefly. We want the real thing, and the NFL knows this. That’s why the yearly season opener has been pushed up to Thursday nights in recent years and the league schedules a marquee matchup to set the table for the months that follow.
This year, that contest is between the reigning Super Bowl champions, the New England Patriots, and perennial AFC playoff contender, the Pittsburgh Steelers. This was supposed to be a meeting between two of the league’s biggest powerhouses, something pundits could point to as a potential championship matchup in January. But, like many things in life, the best-laid plans are often the ones that fall through.
Granted that his four-game deflated-football-adjacent suspension stands—and it shouldn’t, but this is an NFL matter, so anything is possible—this game will not feature future Hall of Fame Patriots quarterback Tom Brady. And if it is overturned, the game will still be without Steelers running back Le’Veon Bell, who is set to serve a two-game suspension for violating the league’s substance abuse policy. There will be no LeGarrette Blount for the Patriots, either, who will be serving a one-game suspension for being with Bell during the time of the marijuana-related DUI that led to Bell’s suspension, back when Blount was a member of the Steelers. Pittsburgh will also be without starting center Maurkice Pouncey, who underwent surgery for an ankle injury suffered in last week’s preseason game against the Green Bay Packers, as well as receiver Martavis Bryant, whose four-game suspension (also for violating the substance abuse policy) was announced earlier this week.
Suddenly, this game looks like a fifth (or in Pittsburgh’s case, sixth) preseason game rather than the big time kickoff special feature the NFL booked it to be all those months ago. That’s not to say it won’t be thrilling, or that the Patriots and Steelers lack star power without these players or that it won’t attract enough attention. It will be thrilling, simply because it’s a regular-season NFL game and it counts. There will be stars on the field, ranging from Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger and receiver Antonio Brown to Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski. And it will certainly attract attention—NFL preseason games nowadays routinely draw more eyes than actually championship games in other professional sports and nothing beats out regular-season football in the ratings.
But it cannot be denied that this is not what the league had intended, which makes these suspensions—Brady’s in particular—all the more confusing. The NFL knew what lay ahead, at least for Brady, Bell and even Bryant (whose four-game suspension almost certainly means he had been in the league’s substance abuse program for some time), well before compiling the schedule. And yet, these are the two teams they selected to play on September 10. There may literally be no worse time for the Steelers and Patriots to play each other, yet, here we are. But, ultimately, the NFL doesn’t need this to be the year’s most compelling regular-season game to get the ratings and the money they want. They’ll get those things no matter who is scheduled to play or which players are doing the on-field work. The only ones who suffer are the Patriots and the Steelers, because circumstances have resulted in the two teams not being able to field full-strength teams.
That’s the magic of the NFL. Even if both the Patriots and Steelers had even greater competitive disadvantages heading into this game, it wouldn’t matter. It won’t cost the league any viewership or advertising dollars. Nothing can derail the NFL’s money train. That’s why, even though this game isn’t exactly what the league had in mind when it was scheduled, it will still produce the desired results: Dollars upon dollars. Fans may lament that key players weren’t a part of the final score. Fantasy football general managers may suffer the consequences of these suspensions. The teams would like to have these players available. But the NFL rolls on. Even when their plans fall through, they never really fall through. As long as there is a game to play, the NFL doesn’t really care about its quality.