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We're Talkin' 'Bout Practice

By drorzel on September 12, 2006.

When Redskins running back and noted NFL whack job Clinton Portis got injured in a preseason game, he generated a lot of buzz with a press-conference rant about how stupid it is to make players go through pre-season games at all. The sports punditocracy kept the topic alive for pretty much the whole rest of the pre-season, with a good number of commentators agreeing with Portis that there's really no need for veteran players to play pre-season games.

A quick scan of the weekend's games might suggest differently. Sloppy play abounded. The Seahawks and Lions didn't manage anything other than field goals. The Patriots fumbled the ball away for a touchdown on the very first play from scrimmage, and won the game by getting a safety when the opposing quarterback apparently forgot where he was. The Jets beat the Titans in large part because Kerry Collins couldn't figure out where to throw the ball. My Giants shot themselves in the collective foot with a host of idiotic false start penalties. (OK, that's mid-season form for them...)

This is why you have a pre-season, guys. Because even veteran players get rusty, and even with everybody playing a few pre-season games, the first week of games usually sucks. Try to do away with the pre-season entirely, and I don't even want to think about what the start of the season would look like.

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Football

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I don't know, Chad. The starters hardly play at all in the preseason. Coaches mainly use the games as a way to help make roster decisions. They don't even like to use the plays they'll actually be using when the games count, because they don't want to give anything away. I don't think the first day of games would be any worse without the preseason.

The main reason the preseason exists is so teams can force fans to pay regular season prices to watch football practice.

There's an ACS meeting in San Francisco and you are pontificating about privileged minority multi-millionaires in cups bitchslapping each other?

Wow.

I note that it only took one game into the season for the Eagles to resume their customary perch atop the NFC East. Get used to it, I'd say.

I note that it only took one game into the season for the Eagles to resume their customary perch atop the NFC East.

One game, versus the Texans. If the Giants got to play San Francisco the first week, they'd be 1-0, too...