One last bash

I have bashed many a things in my blogs, from athletes, to the Olympics to my roommates (my parents). In the last blog of the summer season, I thought I would take a stab at one more ridiculous concept.

The NFL preseason.

Not the idea of it, because it's a necessity to prepare yourself for the regular season. But the over-analyzation of it that has gotten out of control.

An example: two weeks ago ESPN praised the play of Aaron Rodgers, saying he has shown the maturity and ability the Packers knew he had when trading that other guy that had at that position.

This week's game didn't go as well for Rodgers. He played less like a franchise quarterback and more like a drunk freshman girl at her first frat party, being chased by big guys all night and forced into some bad decisions.

It didn't go unnoticed by the analysts, who are now questioning the decision to make him their starter even more than before. But what can't be lost in the mix is that this is still THE PRESEASON. It is irresponsible to make such judgements from week to week in the regular season, let alone during a game where most of the guys on the field in the final minutes will be bagging our groceries in a month.

Teams don't gameplan. They don't stay up at night thinking of ways to exploit the other team's weakness. The most important task of these games is to get your reps and get your hits in before they start to count for real.

In 2005 the Colts lost all their preseason games, going 0-5. They went 14-2 in the regular season, winning their first 13 games.

In 2004 the Patriots went 1-3 in the preseason, then they won the Super Bowl.

The preseason is for the young players to adapt the NFL and for coaches to finalize the last few cuts on the 53-man roster. To assume it means anything more is a waste of time.

But when there is a network dedicated solely to the NFL, they have to fill the airwaves with something for the the 24 hours they are on the air a day, don't they?


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