preseason

[CuseJetsFan83]

with the injury of clinton portis making a tackle during the washington redskins last game, the age old question remains. with many athletes training year round, is the need for preseason still needed (as far as the games go)

in my opinion with the bigger named players, if they are really scared of injury keep them out. and hopefully they wont get hurt in practice either.

i like preseason because it gives teams a chance to cut any excess off the team, some players that think they are primadonnas, or maybe some horribly underachieving players.

preseason is the time for the unknown walk-on freeagent who no one expected to do diddly-squat and ends up making a roster spot. (ala wayne chrebet for example) or for someone to become the next steve tasker.

the best part of preseason is that its also a wonderful way to gage how well the season SHOULD go, and yes i know that a team can be 4-0 and go 3-13 during the year, but thats because both teams usually let the not-so active players play.

the bills showed some signs of life, but for all intensive purposes that game is in the past, just like last year, and the many years before hand... this is their task at hand and they have to go at it with a clear head.


if you could change preseason, would you make it practice only (kinda like high school and college) with maybe a few intersquad scrimmages (controlled by nfl refs, but not actual games)........ or change the amount of games, or kill it all together?

[YardRat]

I like pre-season just the way it is. Veterans need a little bit of game action to get used to the flow of the game, and become acquainted with new starters. The young guys need the opportunity to prove they're capable of playing at this level.

[CuseJetsFan83]

yeah im the same way, like i understand where the bigger named players are coming from that don't want to risk injury, especially since some players will play balls to the wall to make a roster spot.

but for receiver X who was on the squad last year might have a false sense of security and think they make the team, but because of the threat of injury, might as to not play any of the games and get cut.

its risk and reward, if you take the risk of playing hte preseason and come out unscathed, the reward is the roster spot, and the chance of being on the hunt for the lombardi trophy

[Historian]

I would cut it down to two games. Everyone gets one home and one away. The absolute worst teams get to go to the neutral sites to play a third. (Canton, Mexico, Japan, etc...) Their coaches may actually need to see them play a third.

Four is redundant in this day and age, and those of us who have to pay for them, would like to see our ticket invoices go down, lol.

And I guarantee the players union would be all for it.

As a matter of fact, I would love to see this charade of taking the training camp on the road be done with too. Every stadium in the league has indoor practice facilties, grass fields, pools, spas, etc...

Save on expenses...Hold camp at your stadium. Certain nights, open the staduim up for practices. Sell pop and hot dogs and make a few bucks. Sell souveniers. Hold a scrimmage against a neighboring team, and sell 73,000 tix at 3.00 a pop. Have a VIP night at the stadium.

I think they approach camp completely wrong in this day and age.

[ICE74129]

Ok missed in all of this is HOW portis tackled is what got him hurt. He clothes lined a guy across the shoulders hard enough to take him down. THAT is what caused the shoulder issue, not him playing as a whole.

That said, I don't give a damn if you are Joe Montana coming off your 4th SB win, you are going to practice and play some in preseason. Not a ton, just enough to get timing and rythm going for the regular season.

[Typ0]

Four is redundant in this day and age, and those of us who have to pay for them, would like to see our ticket invoices go down, lol.



this policy...of making the season ticket holders pay full price for the crappy pre-season games stinks.

[justasportsfan]

Veterans need a little bit of game action to get used to the flow of the game, . people work 60 hrs a week breaking their backs and not even make $100,000 a year.Those vets can spend more time in the offseason staying focused on the upcoming season with the $$ they make. IMO, they need to cut it to 2 games and risk less injuries. I'd rather they add 2 more regular games at least it means something.

[BillsFever21]

I don't know why everyone makes a big stink about the NFL and preseason but they don't with any of the other major sports.

I think the system is fine the way it is. Four games isn't that excessive. There are a ton of young bubble players who you need to evaluate in real action to make a decision on whether you wanna keep them or not. The actual stars play very little. Injuries happen that is part of the game. Players get injured in practice too. I guess they should quit practicing along with it.

If you do it in football you need to follow suit with the other sports then. Baseball plays about 30 preseason games, basketball about 20 something along with hockey. Each sport plays about a month of preseason to get ready for the real games to start. I never hear players in other sports *****ing this much about it.

These guys are off 7 months of the season to do whatever they want with the millions they made. They only have to play 16 games and 4 months of the season. Cry me a river because they're upset about spending a month in training camp and playing preseason games to get ready for the season.

All the other sports are playing 7 months out of the year or more. They hardly ever have any time off. Football players have the most time off then any other athlete.

Not all athletes stay in game shape throughout the offseason. In a perfect world they would and you wouldn't need training camp or preseason games. They don't though and an organization doesn't wanna start the season off with most of their players huffing and puffing because they are out of game shape.

You put these players in live action when they're not in game shape then you're gonna have even more injuries because their body isn't in the shape it's needed to be to withstand them types of hits.

[raphael120]

heaven forbid they have to play 12 snaps. come on. portis spends more time dressing up for press interviews as a clown as he does playing on the field. give me a break. preseason is a great opportunities for evalutions of rookeis and other no names, i read an article saying how in retort of portis' comment,s james thrash said its because of preseason that he saw a start. returning 2 TDs for touchtowns on kick offs in back to back preseason games earned him a start on the team. to each his own, but thats football. you can get hurt at anytime any game, your paid to play, so play