NFL opener introduces game overload for the rest of 2022

By martin rogers
Fox Sports columnist

I committed a major sin of modern workplace professionalism yesterday and missed a Zoom call with a coworker that was agreed upon, set, and slowly placed at a convenient time on my calendar.

It was entirely my fault – reminders written on scraps of paper still seem to work better than digital denotations to me – but the other party was kind and reasonable and politely asked if a good time to reschedule When can it happen?

“How about 2023?” I almost answered before I could remember my manners.

Today marks the beginning of what can legitimately claim as the most frenetic period of the game we’ve ever seen. a combination of factors; Expanding, rescheduling, restructuring and just the good old reality that most of the sports leagues and competitions we follow don’t actually subscribe to a whole lot less-than-it means the rest of the year pure, unadulterated. Going to the game, overload.

List of things you hoped to do by the end of the summer? If they’re not all tucked up already, punt them by January.

If anyone was foolish enough to schedule a wedding for the opening weekend of this month, RSVP with your best wishes, sincere apologies and the most imaginable excuses. Unless, of course, they’ve arranged a shindig for Friday, which probably means they’re also a sports enthusiast, and you should be all set for their big day as a token of solidarity. .

From the moment the Los Angeles Rams and Buffalo Bills begin another NFL season at Sophie Stadium tonight, there will be 257 games of pro football on 50 different days between now and the turn of the year, with plotlines peppered with but not limited to quarterback transfers. There are coaching changes, a certain 45-year-old chasing ring number 8, and redemption stories galore.

College football comes to the party with 59 days of late-2022 action and nearly a gazillion games of its own, naturally, rounded up to the nearest-million. It delivers a campaign that feels calm… the storm before an even bigger storm, as the game prepares itself for geographic and structural changes, with a heavily beefed-up playoff system on the horizon.

Throw in the winter. Mix up the small case of a Football World Cup, usually staged on the cool days of summer, but this time the European club is located smack in the middle of the season, meaning (we assume) that the most in the business. Will be good both fresh and in form.

That tournament in Qatar would be breathless by its very nature. The whirlwind schedule of 64 games over four weeks will see only three rest days (the shortest) and sustained action, as a United States team led by Christian Pulisic returns to the biggest stage in eight years.

You’re starting to get the point here, aren’t you? Whatever you know as a sports fan for the past few months, when the wait seemed relentless and pockets of action were never enough to quench the thirst for competition? That’s all gone.

The next 116 days won’t give you time to look forward to what’s to come, because keeping up with the “now” will be quite difficult. Don’t worry, though, there’s more to come; Not drip-drip, but a spectacular cascade of sports gluttony.

Sports fans are sometimes accused of being selfish by important people in their lives, which is a degrading and reprehensible slur. What good parenting does more cleverly than rescuing a small child from Peppa Pig’s goofiness and opening your mind to the global wonders of Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and teams representing 32 countries from every corner of the world. Is? No complaints now, Peppa, just be glad you didn’t make it to the tailgate grill.

As far as adult relationships are concerned, a love of sport doesn’t have to be a romance killer, quite the contrary. What could be a better date night than a World Series and chill?

On the subject of baseball, this year’s post season has seen a huge pool of 12 teams in contention for the biggest prize. More teams and more games, with a possible scheduling result that would see only two baseball-free days between October 11 and the end of the World Series.

Before that, some of the most compelling stuff might even be headed to Bracket baseball, as Aaron Judge’s drive for home run immortality just hit 55 and shows little sign of slowing down.

If you want to know why things are so jam-packed, you need look no further than the mirror. This column has always been designed for those of us who think that too much sport is still not enough, and the commissioners, bosses, schedulers and television executives worked long ago that there are millions of people for whom sport is life. is the last turning point.

And you don’t need a diversion from your diversion, so let’s continue with it.

If all of the above isn’t enough for you, with the NASCAR playoffs underway and zero weeks between now and November, the NBA will feature at least one game on each of its first 20 days when it begins on October 19. Will happen. , and the Tennis US Open is reaching its closing phase. All that, plus the controversy of LIV Golf, the new hockey campaign, and another group means you and Couch may soon be in one unit.

Yes, that’s a lot. Yes, exactly what we want.

did i miss something? probably. Not another Zoom call, hopefully, because that would be seriously rude.

Oh whatever, I’ll get it next year.

Martin Rogers is a columnist for Fox Sports and the author of the Fox Sports Insider newsletter. follow him on twitter @MRogersFOX And subscribe to the daily newsletter,

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