Exhibition Football, Huh! What Is It Good For? Absolutely Nothing
Thank you, Sean McVay, for proving a point.
An overwhelming majority of the sporting universe has been sure for decades that NFL pre-season games exist primarilty to soak season ticket holders and broadcast outlets outta more money.
Mainly because it's true.
Who besides hardcore coaches and ultra-fantasy geeks really want to watch third-stringers duke it out for spots on the practice squad or the occasional jackpot of being that 53rd man?
Last season, McVay decided to show he had a solid grasp of the obvious and sat his starters for the entire exhibition season.
Seems like it worked out, what with the Rams making it to the Super Bowl and all. Better yet, they did it while being one of the least injured teams in the league.
Turns out it's a good idea to let the starters avoid the extra nicks, dings, and worse in games that don't count.
Traditionally, the third pre-season game was when starters began to log serious playing time to gear up for the new campaign.
However, with McVay's philosophy catching on, look who played few or no snaps in those games this year:
That list doesn't include Aaron Rodgers or Derek Carr. Seems that 80-yard fields with big holes past the end zones in Canada aren't conducive to sticking chuckers in harm's way, either.
Conversely, look who did play and what happened:
- Cam Newton sprained his foot, and
- Jacksonville WR DJ Chark got his bell rung, as did
- Washington TE Jordan Reed.
The hard fact is McVay and most of his fellow coaches now believe that joint practices are a much more efficient way to get the troops ready for battle.
They see the obvious benefit of having a team on the other side of the ball with a different agenda where either side can stop a play in its tracks, repeat it, and then continue in a format more competitive than an intra-squad scrimmage.
It's not like His Royal Commishness and the team owners haven't seen this coming.
That crowd's all over bagging a pair of exhibitions and expanding the regular season to 18 games, what with their higher profile than exhibitions with the resultant higher revenues.
The players, meanwhile, are still weighing the pros and cons.
Figure it's gonna happen sooner rather than later.
Until then, maybe there's a compromise available:
- Eliminate two pre-season games,
- Keep the regular-season schedule at 16 games,
- Start the season a week later,
- Give each team two byes during the season, where
- One of which can keep the Thursday games from creating a short week.
It actually might take a tad more convincing than that.
Never in the history of North American pro sports has there been an instance of leagues agreeing to reduce the number of revenue-generating events -- ie- games -- even if they're only a couple of lousy but gouge opportunity exhibition games.
Still, the net result is still fewer meaningless match-ups, and for that, McVay should be enshrined in some sorta hall of fame.
Meanwhile, as far as The Shield's concerned, wear-&-tear or no, there will always be players available.