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It’s one of the oldest cliches in the sports world . . .
“We are taking it one game at a time.”
But it’s really not just an overused cliche, but an important mindset players must have, especially in the National Football League, where you only play one game a week, and there are only 17 of them, so every win or loss is huge, and can be the difference between making or not making the playoffs.
So you really do need to take it one game at a time, so coaches must rue the day of the schedule release, because people make such a big deal about it, it can make players look too far ahead, a cardinal sin in sports.
The only game the Jets should focus on, now, and throughout the summer, is Baltimore in Week One.
And even thinking about that game, right now and the next couple of months is probably frivolous.
We talked the other day about the importance of process thinking in football, meaning the most important thing right now for a player is his next bench press in the weight room, or his next rep on the practice field. You never want to look too far down the road.
But with all the schedule hoopla, you have some NFL players talking about some supposed big matchups in Week 6 or Week 10 or whatever, and honestly, the only game that matters, is the next one.
If you look too far ahead, you can mess up your prep for the next game.
Now, I’m not a get off my lawn kind of guy. I understand and respect the fans’ excitement over Thursday’s schedule release. It’s fun to see who your team is playing and when. It also allows fans to make plans to travel to some road games with family and friends.
But from a football purist standpoint, I’ve never been entirely comfortable with how over-the-top the schedule release has become.
It’s not a big deal to me. You prepare for the next opponent on your schedule the week leading up to the game. The schedule is one of those things out of your control. Players and coaches always talk about worrying about things they can control. This isn’t one of them.
And this idea of tough and easy schedules that you hear after the schedule release, is a little overrated, especially in the sport of football.
Yes, some team might look great on paper this time of year, but football has so many darn injuries, you often aren’t going to be facing that team on paper, in its entirety, when they come up on your schedule.
Hey, they might have both offensive tackles out. They might have both starting corners out. You never know. Or worst of all case scenarios is if they have an elite QB, and he gets hurt. That changes everything.
So oftentimes, you don’t know how tough an opponent is truly going to be until the week of the game, and you see how many key players are out.
So that overused saying by NFL players and coaches of taking it “one game at a time” isn’t just rhetoric, it’s the best approach.
May 13, 2022
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