Hello guys and dolls, have you reviewed the 2024 Pittsburgh Steelers NFL schedule? Well, just in case you haven’t, I have. When I read this so-called “competitive schedule,” I thought these old and tired eyes were having an illusion. I thought that maybe a few cows made dinner reservations at the “Slaughterhouse Inn” and forgot their credit cards. Charlie Chan says if you eat dinner and can’t pay your check, you may not be forced to bust a few suds, but you may become an item on the menu. It appears as if someone invited the Steelers to dinner and informed them once they arrived, they were not invited so that they could come and eat swell, they were invited because they were an entrée on the menu so that others could eat. Many of us have been subjected to the yada, yada, yada and spin taken from the doctrine of professional sports leagues when it comes to the subject of parity.
You know how the worst teams of the previous season get the highest draft picks in the upcoming draft to help them become more competitive? What about parity regarding the fraudulent strength of schedule fiasco and the questionable and covert method regarding how the schedule is determined? During 2023, the Pittsburgh Steelers suffered a slew of injuries, yet they managed to limp into the NFL postseason. As the 2023 season progressed, there were times that the Steelers resembled a M.A.S.H. unit more than an NFL franchise.
However, when the Steelers 2024 schedule was released, it appeared that there was a conscious effort to make sure that pillow was placed over the face of the patient at 2 a.m., with no witness in sight. I don’t want you to think I am a habitual whiner/homer but check out a few additional opinions regarding the schedule and see if your opinion is altered. Jarrett Bailey recently posted the following on sbnation.com: “The Pittsburgh Steelers have one of the toughest schedules on paper. This isn’t exactly new to the Steelers, though. In 2008, they had the toughest preseason schedule in the NFL, and won the Super Bowl that season. However, the daunting second half of their 2024 season has some very wary.”
Colin Cowherd has a lot of trepidations, even going as far to say that the Steelers’ second half is the toughest stretch that he’s ever seen.
Former Steelers defensive back-turned NFL commentator Ryan Clark recently said the following about the schedule. “Who made this schedule? What dude from Cleveland all of a sudden got a job in the league office? To think that you have to play the Ravens twice, the Bengals, the Cleveland Browns, and the Eagles and the Chiefs. A team that won the Super Bowl two years in a row. A team that was in the Super Bowl a year before. You have to play those teams to finish the season. The end of the season is where we have seen the Steelers find ways to compete. It’s the beginning of the season when they suck.”
Even Art Rooney II, the generally stoic owner of the Steelers, issued a brief statement about the schedule saying, “It’s probably not exactly how I would have drawn it up, but we’ve got to do the best we can. On the positive side, we’ve got some high-profile, marquee games with the Cowboys and the Chiefs on Christmas day, a couple of other prime-time games. We’ll be playing in front of a big audience most of the time, which is a good thing. A lot of the division games are at the end of the schedule, so it will be an interesting stretch there toward the end.”
The legendary Steelers Pro Bowler and future hall-of-famer, defensive lineman Cam Heyward, offered up this great observation and I am paraphrasing now, that regardless of the competitors that the Black and Gold are scheduled to play, the competition should be concerned about playing the Pittsburgh Steelers as well.
The yinzers are now once again showing their true colors saying things like Heyward should retire because he is not worth the money. What if a few of you guys had to go to work at the local fast-food joint or home remodeling retailer and the customers daily browbeat you at the checkout line, constantly reminding you that you are not worth the hourly rate of pay that you receive? Why should the naysayers worry about the salary that Cam Heyward or any other coach or player is paid? They don’t have to dig into their shallow pockets to pay him or anyone else. However, absorb these following words from the “big brown round mound of sound.” “You can hear crystal clink and dishes clatter, but at the end of the day, chatter doesn’t matter.”
A few of us realize that the ultimate goal of a select group of Steeler fans and a few others is to put an end to the tenure of one Michael Pettaway Tomlin as the head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers, by ensuring that he has a losing 2024 season or by any other means necessary.