Maybe COVID will finally kill NFL’s preseason
Dallas Cowboys rookies reported to The Star in Frisco on Tuesday to start the 2020 NFL season, even though no one seems to know how this will work.
The team said the rookies reported to start the league prescribed COVID protocol. Whatever the H that means.
While the NFL moves forward, virtually every other level of football is delaying, shutting down, or flipping to spring to accommodate concerns over the coronavirus.
The Texas University Interscholastic League announced on Tuesday that it will delay the start to the Class 6A and 5A seasons, while the lower classifications can begin in August.
Despite the costs involved, the NFL is going to pull this off, whereas the other levels will require divinity.
“It’s something that is definitive in a time when nothing has been,” Arlington Martin coach Bob Wager said Tuesday. “Do we move forward with the thought that we are not going to adjust? No. That’s all we’ve done for months.
“What this is is hope. I see a sincere effort to give kids a chance to participate in the things they love.”
Every league and conference that is trying to play a football game in the face of a historical logistical nightmare deserves recognition for their efforts rather than condemnation and relentless cynicism. It is about the money, and there is a kid who yearns to play.
Keep trying until you’re told to stop.
Over the last few months we have been hammered with the idea that sports, and our lives, will never be the same when the world turns on again.
While I reject such alarmist and fatalist sounding narratives, because historically they are incorrect, there will be alterations. If there is a good development to come out of all of this is that the NFL will reduce its preseason schedule permanently.
For 2020, the NFL’s preseason already had been reduced from four games to two. Now multiple media outlets are saying the preseason has been scrapped entirely.
ESPN NFL Insider Adam Schefter is reporting that the league is offering as a concession to the NFL Players Association the elimination of the 2020 preseason.
No pro sports product is more of a ripoff to its fans more than fake NFL games.
One of the all-time bad deals in sports is the NFL preseason game. NFL season ticket holders, in order to secure admission to the eight regular-season games, must purchase two preseason games at the same price.
Dallas Cowboys owner and Pro Football Hall of Famer Jerry Jones should be leading the league to upgrade here.
Jerry may gleefully take your cash, but he is cognizant and aware of the entertainment value of what the NFL presents. This is a guy who actually took a stand on the “kill the clock” play because there is no value to the fans. Nothing happens.
Jerry knows as well as the ticket-paying fan that preseason games offer little value, other than perhaps to the coaches who are evaluating what to do with the last five roster spots.
Former NFL offensive lineman Rich Ohnrberger said all teams need to do is share film of two live scrimmages from training camps during what would be Weeks 1 and 3 of the the preseason, and they’re set.
“Preseason games are a complete farce,” he said. “It’s a money-making exhibition for owners, an opportunity for starters to be injured, and no different than live scrimmages or joint practices to decide who should be on your roster.”
Money stands in the way, of course.
There is the revenue generated from the TV networks, and inside the stadiums themselves. Even if half of a venue is full for junk games, it more than offsets the costs.
If the NFL, and TV, insists on maintaining the preseason, at least look charitable. Drop the fake games from the season packages, and adjust the price of a ticket to a rate reflective of the product.
The value of an NFL game is equivalent to a nice steak and a glass of red wine.
The value of an NFL preseason game is equivalent to a cheeseburger, fries and a Coke.
And the price of a ticket to either is the same.
Give the fan who may not be able to swing the price of a regular-season game the chance to watch their team in their stadium at a more affordable cost. The product is devalued, therefore so should the price of a seat.
Give the family who has little kids and wants to introduce them to an NFL game the chance to buy some cheap seats so they don’t feel guilty about leaving at halftime.
By scrapping the 2020 preseason, the NFL can rid itself of one month of potential headaches. Once teams start to travel from one city to the next, the fear among league officials both in the NFL and MLB, is that the number of positive cases will increase, thus creating potential roster and schedule changes.
Unlike the NHL and NBA, which are attempting to play in bubble environments, the NFL and MLB hope to play games in different cities with players who are going home, out, etc.
It would be nice to think that when football returns to the way we are accustomed, in 2021, the NFL’s preseason will no longer be a part of it.
This story was originally published July 22, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
