Tradition Tuesday: Schedule Conflicts

The rough focus of this blog is the rivalry between the Kansas City Chiefs (heralded by Bankmeister) and the Denver Broncos (championed by Cecil and Old No. 7). It may seem unfair that it's two versus one, but once KC gets that second Super Bowl win we'll even out the delegation.

Seven years ago we started The Tradition, in which Bronco fans travel out to the Truman Sports Complex with their team, and Chef-lovers return to the Rocky Mountains with theirs. We tailgate, we talk massive amounts of shit, our wives are occasionally assaulted by rival fans, and we almost always watch the visiting team lose. It's grand old time.

Here at the HoG, we're going to keep The Tradition going with Tradition Tuesday--a weekly state-of-the-rivalry address.

It's a little ridiculous how close we are to real, actual football. It's almost like when we were kids and training camp would sneak up on us one summer day. Obviously nothing has that level of surprise any more in this oversaturated Interwebs sports world, but the HoG has been so heavy on the baseball lately that the dawn of the NFL season may have fallen between the cracks.

And as close as two-a-days are, that's how close the Denver Broncos and Kansas City Chiefs were last year. Everyone remembers that miserable New Year's Eve meltdown, and how the Broncos fumbled a shot at the postseason in their loss to the 49ers. We all recall the Chiefs' bullshit tiebreaker shenanigans, allowing Herman's club to sacrifice themselves to the Colts.

Sure, the rosters have shuffled and we have a whole season to play, but these are two fairly even teams. In a scrum like this, the differences in schedule can have major ramifications on division position and postseason hopes. It's not inconceivable that, after Norv Turner runs the Chargers into the ground, the impact of the schedule may decide who represents the AFC West deep into January.

I'm sure everybody knows that teams within a division play 14 common games. Each AFC West squad plays the mandatory home-and-home with their division rivals. They'll also play everyone in one AFC division (this year, the South) as well as everyone in one NFC division (thank heavens, it's the North). The remaining two games are slotted against the likewise division finishers from the remaining AFC leagues--thus the Broncos, having finished third, play the third-place club from the AFC East and AFC North.

What's incredible, in looking at the Chiefs' and Broncos' 14 common games, is that they are identical. They play the same teams at home and the same teams on the road, something I can't ever remember seeing in my entire life. They both host Minnesota, Tennessee, Green Bay, Jacksonville and the division teams, while they both travel to Chicago, Detroit, Indianapolis, Houston and the division teams. Uncanny. The only big disparity in the slate is that KC gets to go to Soldier field in sunny September, while Denver's potentially chilly visit is the Sunday after Thanksgiving. Other than that? Carbon copies. It's uncanny.

That leaves Denver's games against the third-place teams and KC's against the second-place finishers as the only real schedule difference (other than the Midwestern griping about having to play three out of four on the road to both begin and end the season--zip it).

The Chiefs host the Bengals, in a rematch of the 2006 game that beheaded Trent Green and hastened his flight to the Dolphins. They then sail into the Meadowlands on the final Sunday of the season for Herman Bowl I, with Coach Edwards returning to the team that dumped him following Kansas City's illegal tampering with his services.

Meanwhile, the Broncos open the campaign in Buffalo and host the Steelers in October. It'll be really nice to bring those sodomite Terrible Towel-wavers back to Invesco following their debacle at Heinz last season...there's no such thing as running up the score in that contest, and Pittsburgh can eat a duffel bag full of dicks.

Who has the edge? It's tough to say, as all four of these teams (Bengals, Jets, Bills, Steelers) are middling playoff contenders. The Jets and Bills made strides last season, while the felonious boozers of Cincinnati and Pittsburgh's pedophilic ass-rapers took injury-assisted steps backward. I'll hedge and say that I'd rather play the Broncos' two, and that Denver's superior talent and coaching acumen will take the day.