The Albatross
Member
Yeah this doesn't make any sense. Peter King is just an idiot. MLB can shoehorn in these "natural rivals" games (like the Red Sox and Atlanta...?) every year because they have too many damn games on the schedule and they need something to spice it up. Boston had been playing the Braves for a few years but nobody cared... Almost nobody living vividly remembers the Braves playing in Boston, at least not enough to harbor any emotions about them 65 years later. Now Atlanta plays Toronto in their "natural rival" game which just makes no sense whatsoever. now, I think the Red Sox play the Phillies? Like... I kinda get the Bruins/Flyers or Celtics/76ers... But I don't harbor any rivalry with Philadelphia in any way.
NFL's scheduling is excellent because it's so sensible, predictable, and balanced. It's easy to say like "Washington played an easy schedule!" this year, but really, their schedule was 2 games different than the Cowboys. And next year, Washington will draw those #1 seed division winners from their conference, while Dallas will draw San Francisco or Chicago, or whoever is last in those other non-scheduled divisions.
Those SF/OAK games are better because they don't play that often... once every 4 years, it makes it more special. If you had to suffer through SF/OAK, or DAL/HOU, Giants/Jets, Bucs/Jags on prime time every year it'd be brutal.
Yeah, and even then... Boston is 3.5 hours from New York, 7 hours from Buffalo... We already play our two "natural" rivals twice a year. Assuming the Giants are the natural Jets rivals, the Patriots would be matched up against some random team that nobody cares about... Philadelphia, I suppose... Philadelphia is a fine, irrelevant city to me, I've been there a few times, had a good enough time, and that's that.
