On October 17, 1973, OPEC — the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries — announced an oil embargo of the United States, later extending it to other NATO countries, such as The Netherlands, in an effort to pressure the West into stop supporting Israel.
The embargo was not lifted until March 18, 1974 — with the United States under year-round Daylight Saving Time since January 6 of that year because of the embargo (after going back to Standard Time on October 27, 1974, DST resumed on February 23, 1975, only to return to Standard Time on October 26, 1975, with no further changes in the normal pattern until 1987, when the beginning of DST was moved forward from the last Sunday in April to the first Sunday of that month).
Some of the consequences of this "Arab oil blackmail" included the lowering of the speed limit on U.S. highways from 70 miles per hour to 55 miles per hour (leading to Sammy Hagar's 1984 hit single I Can't Drive 55), a strong recommendation that all Americans lower their thermostats to 65 degrees during the day and 55 at night (remember Jimmy Carter and his Lou Carnesecca-like sweater?) — and the implementation of an "odd-even rationing" policy (which turned out not to have reduced fuel consumption at all) for the purchase of gasoline, meaning that drivers whose license plates ended in an odd number could only purchase gasoline on odd-numbered days of a month, while drivers whose license plates ended in an even number could only purchase gasoline on even-numbered days of a month. If a month had 31 days or, in leap years, when February had 29 days, all drivers could buy gasoline (the latter actually happened in 1980 because the overthrow of the Shah of Iran by the Ayatollah Khomeini resulted in a second oil price shock).
Since the NFL went to the 17-game schedule in 2021, an "odd-even" situation has prevailed therein as well — in that in odd-numbered years, all 16 AFC teams get the "17th game" at home, while in even-numbered years, all 16 NFC teams get the "17th game" at home.
And this leads to wide year-to-year swings in the pendulum of which conference wins most of the interconference games: In 2023, the AFC won the interconference season series 46-34 — while in 2024, the NFC won it, 47-33 (but since the NFC actually hosted 48 of that season's 80 interconference games, the NFC actually underachieved).
But so far in 2025, which should be an AFC year, the NFC leads the series, 27-24.
Once the 18-game schedule arrives, look for the "18th game" to be another interconference game matching up two teams that finished in the same position in their respective divisions the season before, forcing a previous year's division champion to play six games against other first-place finishers, while last-place teams will get to play sixgames against other teams that finished last the year before — essentially the same format that as the one that existed from 1978 through 1994, when fifth-place teams played four games against fifth-place teams while the rest of the league played only two (this has already happened before — so why not again?).
At least this will make the draft fairer, in that tiebreakers will no longer be used to settle ties between/among two (or more) teams that did not play the same number of home games.
And with baseball commissioner Rob Manfred talking about both a salary cap and a wage floor (the NFL has had both since 1994), it looks like "parity is breaking out all over" (both Manfred and his NFL counterpart Roger Goodell are front-end baby-busters who can be counted upon to do the right thing — after someone, almost always older, lets them know what the right thing is).
Guess we will never have another '27 Yankees, a '42 Cardinals, or a '61 Yankees — or another '72 Dolphins.
Just perpetual mediocrity for as far as the eye can see.
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