Preseason 2004: Who Cares?

[KWhit]

But there's always the possibilty of lengthening the regular season, too.

So cut 2 pre-season games and add 2 regular season games.


Ack! Dang board post-order problems!

[Noop]

So your saying teams just tank the pre-season?

[Solecismic]

For those of you who have to pay full price for those pre-season tickets in order to get the regular season games, I'm sure you're aware by now these games have become little more than practice sessions, chances to evaluate young players and work on fundamentals.

It's probably long since been time to reduce the preseason to two games per team. But as long as there's some money to be made, that will never happen.

2004 Division Leaders   Current Record  Pre-Season Record
New England              12-1                1-3
Pittsburgh                  12-1                2-2
Philadelphia                12-1                1-3
Indianapolis                10-3                2-2
San Diego                  10-3                2-2
Atlanta                     10-3                2-2
Green Bay                  8-5                 1-3
Seattle                      7-6                 3-1
TOTAL                      81-23 (.779)      14-18 (.438)


2004 Last Place Tms   Current Record   Pre-Season Record
Miami                        2-11               2-2
San Francisco             2-11               0-4
Cleveland                   3-10               3-1
Oakland                     4-9                 3-1
Tennessee                 4-9                 3-1
Washington                4-9                 3-2
Chicago                     5-8                 2-2
New Orleans               5-8                 2-2
TOTAL                      29-75 (.279)     18-15 (.545)

[Noop]

Has Skydog ever explained why the board does this?

[MizzouRah]

Luckily, I have a friend who buys my preseason tickets.

I just hate shelling out playoff ticket $$$ already.



Todd

[MikeVic]

It's clear what we can derive from this.... San Fran sucks.

[Honolulu Blue]

Point taken, Jim. Preseason games mean nothing in the standings and are only wastes of money to those ticket holders who have to pay for them.

That said, I'm going to say three points in favor of preseason games:

1) They're televised nationally Thursday-Monday of most weeks, meaning four days of NFL action. Note that I didn't say QUALITY NFL action.
2) These days it takes a game or two for most teams to get the penalties and overall scratchiness out of their system. I fear that if we cut the preseason, there will be more sloppy play spilling over into the regular season.
3) I like watching the 2nd and 3rd stringers play. Some of these guys I've heard of, they were picked up as UFAs (mostly), and they'll probably get cut before the season starts. And the only times the clipboard carrier gets to play is in dire emergencies or during the preseason.

[Pyser]

I give my preseason games away as "gifts". i hate that they are included in season ticket packages. but i bet if they opened the seats up to anyone who wants to buy them, theyd still sell out (thinking of the giants, anyway, and their crazy waiting list).

[Klinglerware]

I'd also add that it's also a money issue, but in a roster management kind of way. Preseason games are an opportunity for teams to see how well their younger cheaper players might be able to play under game conditions. The games provide more data points for the team to see if their expensive veterans are really worth more than the younger players. I think that with a shorter preseason, veterans with declining skills would probably be given more of a benefit of the doubt over the less experienced player, and in the long run might result in lower quality play in the regular season with teams shouldering a higher payroll than they have to. I realize that the salary cap and competitive forces mitigate this, but at the least (much like how a long preseason allows sloppy play to be ironed out before the regular season), the longer preseason allows much of this roster management to happen in the preseason, leaving a highest quality team at the lowest cost to start the regular season.