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With all the latest injuries to key players around the league (Tom Brady, Doug Martin, Dustin Keller, etc.) should the NFL make like the NCAA and be preseason free? What do you think?

In my opinion, the NFL should cut it down to 2-3 games.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZMMsTCtNcg

They should scrap practices, training camp, regular seasons games, and postseason games too. That way no one ever gets hurt and we all live happily ever after.

I love that response, lol, but is it really needed other than to fill out the last roster spots.

The main point i was trying to make is so many of the recent injuries have happened in training camp/practice, not even in the preseason games. Yes there have been plenty of injuries in the games too, but thats the nature of the sport, injuries are gonna happen, contact or noncontact. Does the contact increase the risk? Sure, but I don't think it increases it to the point where its detrimental to the regular season games. The preseason isn't just for last roster spots, its for the starters to get some of their timing and stuff down and working on real game situations that you can't otherwise replicate. I can't imagine how sloppy and terrible the first few regular season games would be with absolutely no preaseason and just some camp practices.
The real issue with preseason is the cost for the fans, no one wants to pay full price to see what is deemed a lesser product, nor should they have to. If the owners can get their heads out of their asses they could fix that.

Injuries happen and always will happen.

But we don't need 5 pre-season games like some teams have. Plus they won't reduce the #of games with the $ they get for the pre-season games

Kohl Is A Mome wrote:The main point i was trying to make is so many of the recent injuries have happened in training camp/practice, not even in the preseason games. Yes there have been plenty of injuries in the games too, but thats the nature of the sport, injuries are gonna happen, contact or noncontact. Does the contact increase the risk? Sure, but I don't think it increases it to the point where its detrimental to the regular season games. The preseason isn't just for last roster spots, its for the starters to get some of their timing and stuff down and working on real game situations that you can't otherwise replicate. I can't imagine how sloppy and terrible the first few regular season games would be with absolutely no preaseason and just some camp practices.
The real issue with preseason is the cost for the fans, no one wants to pay full price to see what is deemed a lesser product, nor should they have to. If the owners can get their heads out of their asses they could fix that.

Well obviously people do want to do that..and aren't being forced to. I think you got it a little backwards. Maybe part of the problem is that all these fans DO want to pay a bunch of money to go to preseason games, and all these meaningless games get televised. It'd be a lot easier to convince the owners/league to shorten the pre-season if they weren't making money.

That's just the power of football in this country. The NBA has to wait until half way through the season until the first game is nationally televised on Christmas. The NFL gets nationally televised games during week 1 of the pre-season. I rmember one year NBC aired a Sunday Night Football during week 1 of the pre-season which just seems crazy. I'm not sure if they did that again this year or not.

Cut it down to two preseason games. We don't really need four. Parts of two games is more than enough for guys to shake off the rust.

Cant lower preseason games, as much as I despise it. It's not only a critical juncture for coaches to finalize roster spots, but it's an opportunity for undrafted players to make a mark on the team. Two games wouldn't be enough time imo, not enough playing time to go around for a 53 man roster.

JustBlaze wrote:

Kohl Is A Mome wrote:The main point i was trying to make is so many of the recent injuries have happened in training camp/practice, not even in the preseason games. Yes there have been plenty of injuries in the games too, but thats the nature of the sport, injuries are gonna happen, contact or noncontact. Does the contact increase the risk? Sure, but I don't think it increases it to the point where its detrimental to the regular season games. The preseason isn't just for last roster spots, its for the starters to get some of their timing and stuff down and working on real game situations that you can't otherwise replicate. I can't imagine how sloppy and terrible the first few regular season games would be with absolutely no preaseason and just some camp practices.
The real issue with preseason is the cost for the fans, no one wants to pay full price to see what is deemed a lesser product, nor should they have to. If the owners can get their heads out of their asses they could fix that.

Well obviously people do want to do that..and aren't being forced to. I think you got it a little backwards. Maybe part of the problem is that all these fans DO want to pay a bunch of money to go to preseason games, and all these meaningless games get televised. It'd be a lot easier to convince the owners/league to shorten the pre-season if they weren't making money.

That's just the power of football in this country. The NBA has to wait until half way through the season until the first game is nationally televised on Christmas. The NFL gets nationally televised games during week 1 of the pre-season. I rmember one year NBC aired a Sunday Night Football during week 1 of the pre-season which just seems crazy. I'm not sure if they did that again this year or not.

Not true, in some cities you have to buy tickets to a preseason game to buy tickets to a regular season game. (Thats not to say you can't buy them off some third party later, but what if you're a season ticket holder and they make you do that?) Again I understand they're not technically forced to in the most literal sense though. But in order to get the seats they want they kind of are.
The games aren't meaningless overall. Yes in terms of record and whatever sure. But as far as some guys making the team and others not they aren't. Undrafted guys may not be the majority, but there sure are a lot of guys that wouldn't even make the team without enough preseason games to prove they belong. Same goes for the late round guys that emerge.

I don't think it should be scraped and I doubt it will ever gets scraped.