Wake Me Up When Preseason’s Over
by Sam Cales
Can’t do it. Can’t stand it. Can’t stay awake for it. The NFL preseason. The NFL is the king of the hill of American sports, and rightfully so. The season is a scant 18 weeks leading to only 3 weekends of one shot playoff games then a week off then you get the Big Game. Who knows if I can use the word to describe the Bowl being Super so it’s Big Game for now. 22 weeks of a season that isn’t daily games or 3-4 games a week. No your team plays once a week and you gotta put your butt on the sofa and send the kids away because that’s it for the week.
And I’m all for it. As a fan of your team that’s all you are getting each week. Not the 6 months of baseball. Or 8 months of NBA and NHL. Four and a half months of a regular season. But that’s what I’m gonna give you. Please stop it with the coverage of the preseason that rivals the Zapruder film.
There was a time when you could watch the preseason and starters would build up to playing 3/4 of a game. But now teams are saying mid training camps that this player or that player won’t take any snaps in the preseason. Take the Dallas Cowboys. Dak Prescott isn’t going to smell the field in the preseason so I should be excited to see Cooper Rush play?
Call me old man shaking his cane at the sky, but the coverage of preseason has grown 10 fold, while the playing time of a player you would buy a jersey of has become almost nonexistent. So why would you watch? Because it’s football that’s why. By the time two teams square off in the Hall of Fame game it’s been nearly 5 months since that aforementioned Big Game. You think because they play on a 100 yard field with some referees and throw that pigskin you last saw when you still needed a snow shovel that it’s football but it’s not. It isn’t of a quality that deserves the respect you are giving it.
So let me offer you up an alternative preseason. A preseason for your family. For 18 weeks they know the king NFL is around. So spend the preseason weeks knocking out some home repairs. Or clean out the garage. Or change the oil in the cars. Or go on a hike or to an amusement park or a zoo with the family. Give the world one last look around before you dive into the NFL headfirst. Because the next time you are in a world that doesn’t have football it will be the cold and dark doldrums of winter. And the list of things that need done around the house is gonna keep you busy until at least the draft