The NFL and NFL Players’ Association have agreed to cancel all four preseason games for every team this year, as reported by USA TODAY Sports’ Mike Jones.
The move allows time for players to and teams to better develop health and safety protocols within their organizations, limits unnecessary travel, and doesn’t put players at extra risk during a global pandemic for exhibitions games.
Team owners at first wanted fewer preseason games this year, then relented and agreed to cancel all of them, according to Jones.
This is a big win for the NFLPA, which has sought to eliminate some of (if not all) preseason games for years, citing them as an unnecessary burden on the players’ health and their time, in games that serve as essentially nothing but a chance for coaches to get a look at some bubble players. (A scrimmage can do that, too, by the way.)
Actually, that’s not the only thing the games serve as. They serve as another way to make money for team owners.
These are the only people who will miss preseason games, I promise you. For team owners who have big stadiums that sit empty much of the time, preseason games allow them a chance to get some people at least in there, and spending money. That won’t apply this time, due to the pandemic.
So why do they care, then? Why did they fight to keep a few preseason games? Because it also gives them something to sell to TV networks.
The football may be terrible. The TV product may be all but unwatchable. Stars may only play one drive, if that. But it’s all money to the owners. Desperate NFL fans will demand it’s televised, then complain the whole time when they have to watch the third string QB sail passes over an undrafted rookie’s head for much of the game. But owners don’t care. The check’s already cashed.
I’m telling you, fans: You won’t miss it. Teams will get creative and find ways to live stream intrasquad scrimmages, and the diehards will get their fix that way, and come Week 1, none of us will even remember that there wasn’t a preseason.
The only people who will miss it are owners, and you know what? They’re all bazillionaires. They’ll be fine.
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