The Steelers deserve compensation following Week 12 postponement

The Steelers Week 12 Matchup vs the Ravens has been postponed to Tuesday at the earliest.

The Steelers Week 12 game against the Ravens has been pushed back to Tuesday. The game could even be pushed back further if the Ravens’ players continue to test positive for Covid-19. This makes all 3 of the Steelers’ hardest games on their 2020 schedule being moved by circumstances surrounding Covid-19.

The first time this happened to Pittsburgh was with their Week 4 Matchup against the Titans. This involved the largest scheduling change anyone has dealt with in the NFL this year. This moved the Matchup against the black and gold’s toughest divisional opponent, the Ravens, to Week 8. Week 8 was the Steelers’ original bye week. So the Steelers’ bye was moved to Week 4.

This forced the Steelers into 13 straight games before the playoffs. It also created the toughest stretch on their 2020 schedule, which included 4 of 5 games being either against a divisional opponent, or a playoff favorite. It is worth noting that the AFC North is the toughest division in the NFL. It has a combined record of 18-7-1 against non-divisional opponents. The next best division in the NFL is the NFC West with a record against non-divisional opponents of 18-10.

Ravens are being rewarded

What adds insult to injury, is that the Ravens are practically being rewarded for not containing their Covid-19 situation. They just lost an overtime game against a Tennessee team that just beat down on them in the latter parts of the game. It gives Baltimore extra time to rest and get healthier, heading into a game that could knock them out of contention from winning the AFC north. This postponement also trims down the 9-day break Pittsburgh would have had between Week 12 and Week 13, which was in essence a very much needed mini-bye for them before the last stretch of the regular season.

Steelers are losing their primetime game

The biggest reason the NFL should consider compensating the Steelers in some way is that this postponement is taking the Steelers’ highest viewing game of the season out of the primetime slot it was in. Everyone is going to be home and watching football on Thanksgiving. It is the biggest rivalry in football today, and the loss in viewership is taking away the possible boost in future ticket sales and merchandise sales that Pittsburgh could have been seeing after their biggest game of the season in 2020.

I highly doubt the league would go to something as drastic as asking the Ravens to compensate the Steelers financially. Nor do I believe, that the league would compensate Pittsburgh financially. They could do something to give the Steelers extra cap space in 2021, but that seems unlikely.

I don’t think that much will be done for the Steelers even after they have been one of the best teams in the league at keeping Covid-19 off the field while holding the best record in the league. I can at least say that my team has done an amazing job at rolling with the punches and maintaining a standard that is being tested regularly by circumstances surrounding the pandemic.