What a waste of time!!! … Can we really just start to say the quiet part out loud. The current NFL pre-season formula is a total, unmitigated waste of time. This past weekend, for example, barely half the teams in the league played their starting QB at all and, of those that did, most only played a series or two. Indeed, several teams didn’t play any starters at all. And it is probably going to be even worse this coming week when the pre-season schedule wraps. As a result, the better part of most pre-season games are played by guys whose best hope is to maybe catch on with a practice squad. Fact is you don’t really need pre-season games to play competitive football at all. The colleges don’t have pre-season games and the Canadian league has an abbreviated two-game exhibition schedule, but most teams don’t play any of their key players. Again, the simple fact is that nobody is going to get in game shape or get any timing down playing as few snaps as most players get in pre-season games. About the only thing players are going to get is injured.
So here’s a radical suggestion for the NFL. Simply get rid of the pre-season games. Give the NFL its precious 18th regular season game. Shorten training camps which really don’t need to be 6-7 weeks long (and are only that long to allow for pre-season games) and start the season earlier. We might also suggest giving teams a second bye week (and schedule their Thursday games around the byes so players don’t have to play twice in four days.) And as an aside we’d love to see the extra game be a traditional rivalry, at least for those teams that have a natural rival like the Rams-Chargers, Giants-Jets, Eagles-Steelers, Cowboys-Texans, Dolphins-Bucs, Ravens-Commanders, and 49ers-Raiders. Maybe play some of those games in neutral college stadiums. ed.
