Mark Madden's Hot Take: A pandemic doesn't know how to be fair; the NFL has to make do

Since the game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens got pushed back to Sunday and then Tuesday, two themes have emerged via local angst:

• Baltimore broke the rules.

• The Steelers have been hard done by.

The former implies that an outbreak of covid is akin to jumping offside or using PEDs. The Ravens neither sought nor got an unfair edge. They bungled their handling of a contagious disease, but so did the Steelers when they put an ailing Vance McDonald on the plane to Dallas, where he sat next to Ben Roethlisberger. The Steelers got lucky. The Ravens didn’t. (Maybe the Steelers didn’t, either: Three players went on the covid list Friday. James Conner joined them Saturday.)

The latter is false. The Steelers were scheduled for a short week, then a long week. Now they have a long week, then a short week. Annoying uncertainties noted, what’s the difference?

Some of the citizens want a forfeit. But I’d rather watch the game.

What if the Steelers go undefeated? If one of those victories is a forfeit, they’re 16-0*.

One troubling scenario has materialized. A more troubling scenario might.

• After Baltimore, the Steelers host Washington. The Steelers have four days between games, Washington nine. But Washington stinks. The Steelers don’t. The Steelers are 10-0 with a mindset to match. That difference in rest and preparation is shrugged off easily.

• If the Steelers-Ravens game is never played, the NFL schedule goes uncompleted. In that case, the league’s contingency plan dictates that an eighth playoff team can be added in each conference. The top seed gets no bye. Suppose Steelers-Ravens gets canceled, the Ravens get that extra spot, the Steelers are denied the bye and the teams play in the wild-card round.

If the Ravens won that game, Steelers fans would riot. (Or at least cry a lot.)

The word “fair” keeps getting thrown about. A pandemic doesn’t know how to be fair. There’s no precedent. The NFL just needs to make do.

You know what would be fair? The Steelers get a bye to the Super Bowl.

Get used to Tuesday night football, by the way. The NFL would love another regular prime-time slot. Finagling the schedule in this instance gives them an excuse to try it out.