To Preseason, or Not To Preseason… is that Really a Question?

ARE YOU READY TO DISCUSS IN DETAIL FOOTBALL!!!

By Chris Hubbard

So, remember when football was a casualty of the war on greed? Remember when the most interesting news days in sports were filled with article after article, and pundit after pundit debating whether anyone would actually let a multi-billion dollar a year industry like professional football, just take a year off because a bunch of rich, old, white guys couldn’t compromise with a bunch of rich, young, athletic guys? Remember when things were so bad that all we were left with were horrific depictions of what the year would be like with an NFL lockout in full force and a nation of hungry fans forced to turn their attention to, God forbid, soccer (football’s slow cousin,) hockey, or something even weirder and harder to watch like, lacrosse or Nascar?

Me too. Thankfully everything worked out as anyone with half a brain could have easily predicted and we have football again. Finally, we can all stop caring about our impossible to manage fantasy baseball teams, and we can all start drafting and managing our check-it-once-a-week-before-the-first-game-on-Sunday fantasy football teams. Wait, what? Baseball season isn’t over for another two months? Oh good, that’s plenty of time to improve up on my 58-120 record...

Anyway, preseason football kicked off in high fashion yesterday, and now, after an entire summer of the media attempting to peak our interest in lawyers and courtroom yada yada, we get to have the same thing happen with preseason football for the next four weeks. That’s right, prepare yourselves for more of the same. More stirring questions like, “Are the Eagles really the Miami Heat of football?” “Will the lockout affect the performance of player’s in-season?” There will be more epic debates over whether Tim Tebow will be a good quarterback this year or next year or, ever or whether Kevin Kolb will ever remind us of a professional quarterback, instead of just corn.

Of course, the preseason won’t answer any of these questions for us, but that doesn’t mean we all shouldn’t watch and pretend like it will, right? I mean, how else will we see third string players battle to stay on the fringes of our favorite team’s rosters? Those players will make an impact one day, maybe. Tom Brady did, and if one player out of literally hundreds a year could do it once, than so can a bunch of other guys right?

What is it about preseason football that is so damned interesting that it’s the most hyped preseason in sports? Does anyone talk this much about baseball’s spring training? Sure there’s some coverage, but for the most part people are more interested in the NBA playoffs and March Madness. Do we hear about preseason basketball ever? No. Did you even know that there was a preseason in the NHL? I bet you didn’t. So why is there so much coverage of preseason football?Do that many people really find themselves gripped with interest in the high stakes game of no consequence football? I think all of this is just a case of the sports media having little else to talk about come late summer, mixed with an overly dramatic off-season. But come now, wouldn’t you rather be watching something good on a Thursday, like Louie, instead of watching a bunch of future Verizon wireless salesmen bump into each other for three hours? I know I did.

Sure I’ll return in four weeks to watch my team compete as avidly as the next fan, but I’m afraid a summer of wondering whether there’d be football or not this fall, hasn’t inspired as much love for preseason in me as ESPN seems to think.