Shorter pre-season?

[racepug]

I understand that the N.F.L. used to have a 6-game pre-season. Now it's down to 3 games. Anybody think it'll go lower than that (if, say, the league expands to an 18-game regular season)? Six games seems excessive to me but, on the other hand, anything less than 3 doesn't seem like enough. If the N.F.L. moves to an 18-game regular season does it shorten pre-season or does it start pre-season earlier or extend the regular season to (say) the last or next-to-last Sunday in February, do you think?

[Citizen]

The pre-season has outlived its usefulness. For one thing, players stay in condition year-round now, which wasn't the case in the six-game era. Starters don't need the sharpening that they did then. Also, teams no longer have 15 draft picks and two dozen or more free agents and other walk-ons to weed out.

Teams could probably get by with a couple of controlled scrimmages every training camp. The quality of the games I've seen this month has been atrocious; they only exist for $$.

[rhickok1109]

The pre-season has outlived its usefulness. For one thing, players stay in condition year-round now, which wasn't the case in the six-game era. Starters don't need the sharpening that they did then. Also, teams no longer have 15 draft picks and two dozen or more free agents and other walk-ons to weed out.

Teams could probably get by with a couple of controlled scrimmages every training camp. The quality of the games I've seen this month has been atrocious; they only exist for $$.

I disagree. A player who looks great in controlled scrimmages is often a flop under actual game conditions and, conversely, a player who doesn't look good in the scrimmages often shines in actual games. To cite one notorious example, if Paul Hornung had been judged by how he performed in practices and scrimmages, he would have been cut after his first week.

[sheajets]

Plus you have coaches absolutely mortified of catastrophic pre season injuries ruining seasons before they get started. You're seeing fewer and fewer starters out there for stretches every year...nobody wants to risk their important big $ veteran players getting knocked out for weeks or the season due to someone else's overzealous rookie desperately trying to earn a roster spot

[Reaser]

Plus you have coaches absolutely mortified of catastrophic pre season injuries ruining seasons before they get started. You're seeing fewer and fewer starters out there for stretches every year...nobody wants to risk their important big $ veteran players getting knocked out for weeks or the season due to someone else's overzealous rookie desperately trying to earn a roster spot

Your Jets didn't even want to risk 'the franchise' Joe Flacco last night.

Seems likely that if/when the schedule expands to 18, which has good odds of happening, preseason will go down to two games.

I personally like watching preseason games. To see players that I watched in college that I won't otherwise see in the regular season, or in the NFL at all. There's still good stories and exciting moments. e.g. Turpin two return TDs after coming from the USFL. Bernhardt's whole story, starting with us PLL fans excited to see him in the PLL before he decided to play football, QB, at Ferris State. Following his season there, and now following him through the preseason where he looks more and more likely to end up on the roster. Stuff like that. Preseason has its usefulness.

[Retro Rider]

I remember the days of 6 exhibition games. The first one I saw on television was the 1971 Hall of Fame Game featuring the Oilers vs. Rams. I also recall seeing the 49ers at Dolphins and Jets at Chiefs that summer. I looked forward watching pre-season football but I hated seeing injuries, like Joe Namath wrecking his knee in the Jets first 1971 exhibition game at Tampa. I thought the move to a 4 game exhibition schedule and 16 regular season games in 1978 was about right. I think eventually the NFL will move to an 18 game regular season schedule with 2 exhibition games like the CFL.

During the era of 6 pre-season games it was common to see teams playing in cities that didn't have an NFL team. Such was the case 50 years ago this month when the Jets and Steelers met at Husky Stadium in Seattle. My dad took me to see the game and it was a wonderful experience, even though my Jets got whipped by Pittsburgh.

https://www.seattletimes.com/sports/sea ... was-there/

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[SixtiesFan]

I recall in the 1960s they were called "exhibition games" and the "exhibition season." Pete Rozelle came up with the idea of calling them "preseason games."

[Lee Elder]

The pre-season has outlived its usefulness. For one thing, players stay in condition year-round now, which wasn't the case in the six-game era. Starters don't need the sharpening that they did then. Also, teams no longer have 15 draft picks and two dozen or more free agents and other walk-ons to weed out.

Teams could probably get by with a couple of controlled scrimmages every training camp. The quality of the games I've seen this month has been atrocious; they only exist for $$.

In the old days, NFL teams brought better than 100 players to camp before cutting to 43 players. They cut more than half the players in camp. Now teams are allowed to bring fewer players to camp for a much larger final roster. The Organized Team Activity schedule in the spring gives the coaches a decent feel for their roster before camp begins.

The pre-season games now seem to serve as a chance for the lesser players to get seen by other teams rather than for proving themselves to the teams they are in camp with. I believe, without proof, that starters and other veterans probably do more hitting in the pre-season now than in other eras. The controlled scrimmages against other teams allow that to happen.

When the NFL instituted the 3-game pre-season, I expected veteran quarterbacks to begin experiencing arm troubles. The longer summers, I thought, gave the veteran arms a better chance to gradually prepare for the league season grind. I don't think we've seen that and I'm glad to be wrong. The Rams' Matt Stafford has had a sore arm this summer, but it looks like he has had time to get ready. Tom Brady hasn't even bothered to be in camp, so maybe we'll see what an NFL arm really needs to be ready for the season.

I was surprised when the league extended the season to 17 games and cut the pre-season to 3 games. The decision was certainly driven by the needs of the TV networks. It would have been better for the players, I thought, to add a second week off for each team during the season. That would have extended the season an extra week and cut the pre-season to 3 games without adding a single hit to a player.

[Retro Rider]

50 years ago this summer, the 1972 NFL Hall of Fame Game kicked off with Kansas City facing the New York Giants. It was the first of seven exhibition games the Chiefs played that season.

R.I.P. Lenny Dawson

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[BD Sullivan]

50 years ago this summer, the 1972 NFL Hall of Fame Game kicked off with Kansas City facing the New York Giants. It was the first of seven exhibition games the Chiefs played that season.

R.I.P. Lenny Dawson

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This was the game in which Cosell referred to white running back Mike Adamle as a "little monkey" and nobody batted an eye. Fast forward 11 years later and all hell breaks loose.

As far as the six-exhibition schedule, many of those games were actually worth watching--unlike the trash that season ticket holders are now forced to subsidize.