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The New York Giants have had losing seasons in seven the last eight years and have played just one postseason game since winning Super Bowl XLVI in February of 2012.
One of the advantages of being a doormat in the NFL, along with optimum draft position, should be a more lenient schedule as part of the NFL’s effort to create an air of parity and fairness.
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The Giants should have had one of the league’s easiest schedules year after year over the past decade, but oddly enough, the opposite has been true.
In fact, the Giants have been treated very unfairly the last 10 years by the schedule makers. In a new study by NFL statistical analyst Warren Sharp, it has been revealed that the Giants have had the most difficult schedule of any NFL team since 2011 in regards to ‘rest and prep’ variables outlined by Sharp.
Some rest and prep issues that the Giants have fallen victim to per Sharp.
The most difficult scheduling spots teams deal with as it relates to player health, rest and preparation are:
• Rest disadvantage
• Short week road games
• Negated bye weeks
• Games after playing on Sunday or Monday night on the road
• Four games in 17 daysThe NFL needs to look into how they schedule games to try and make it more equitable across the league on an annual basis.
Each year, all 32 teams should have the same shot at making the postseason and Super Bowl. The NFL cannot pick their opponents, but the NFL can ensure that the timing of games is as equitable as possible.
While it will be impossible to make it fair every single year, we should never see the lopsided situations depicted above over a sample as large as 10 years.
It will be interesting to see the new schedule release and determine which teams have been aided most by preferential treatment as it relates to rest and preparation, and which teams have been treated least fairly. And then compare to the historical averages to see if the NFL is headed in the right direction with implementing more equitable scheduling practices.
My contention is that the Giants, as a losing team, should not have played on national television as many times as they did during the past decade. Their performance did not warrant national attention and therefore should have been playing at 1:00 p.m. on Sunday afternoons until they righted their ship and got back to their winning ways. That would have taken care of some of the ‘inequities’ Sharp has unearthed in this report.
But the NFL’s thirst for revenue had them placing the Giants and the New York market in the national spotlight, which has been a factor in the Giants’ stunted effort to get back on their feet.
The 2021 NFL schedule is set to released Wednesday, May 12.
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