_sturt_
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Preseason is preseason. The games themselves don't count. Thus, there are things we accept as necessary and conventional but that do not need to be held sacred... again, it's preseason.
We all get that, right?
You want your younger players to get more reps because you want to evaluate them. You want your veteran players to get fewer reps because you don't want them to get prematurely injured, though some minimum amount of play needs to happen obviously to get them into gear, or as some would say, knock the rust off from the off-season.
I'm confident we all get that.
As it is, you normally have 4 games spread over 4 weekends, ie 16 quarters. And yes, we want to reduce the length of the preseason, but we don't want to reduce the quantity of snaps, because it matters for the 40-50 players of the 90-man rosters who are not mortal locks to make the team.
So here we go.
3 games total.
(4 is too many, but 2 is too few--a player could be sick or injured for one game, and then you're left to evaluate him on the basis of just that one. And you want to be able to see how well players can correct their errors based on the coaching they receive. If 2 games, there's really only one between-games window to use to observe that.)
The third game is your normal 4 quarter game.
The first and second games, though, are something like some of us experienced in high school when you had the varsity game preceded by the junior varsity game.
That is, before the normal 4 quarter game starts, there is what amounts to a "junior varsity" half (2 quarters) played, in which there are rules that restrict teams to play players who were not normally on an NFL team's active roster in the previous season.
So, in essence, the first two games are great for serious fans who want to arrive early enough to watch the "junior varsity" half. It's football nirvana for many of us... six quarters of football... just a great day to be alive.
Someone will ask, "Well, but that only gives you one more weekend for one more regular season game--and part of this, too, is that the league wants to get to 18 regular season games. That's only 17, and of course, you can't have an odd number of regular season games. How do you get to 18?"
Here's how.
We start on Labor Day weekend instead of the weekend after, but then, we eliminate the bye weekend. That's 18 games over 18 weekends then.
But of course, it's a lot to expect players to play 18 straight games, and on top of that, for many, to play into a post-season.
So, in place of the bye weekend, simply institute the new rule that players are limited to being active for only 17 of the 18 games.
(Personally, I'd even prefer that it be 16 of the 18. Heck, 15 even, imo. But I figure there'd be too much brushback on anything more than 17.)
Summary: Instead of 16 quarters over 4 weekends, incorporate "JV halves" (though I'm sure there's probably a more appealing name we can give them) in constructing 16 quarters over 3 weekends. Take that Labor Day weekend that we've been using for that final preseason game, and start the regular season then. Trade-off the bye weekend for a new rule that says players can only play 17 of the 18 regular season games.
Done.
We all get that, right?
You want your younger players to get more reps because you want to evaluate them. You want your veteran players to get fewer reps because you don't want them to get prematurely injured, though some minimum amount of play needs to happen obviously to get them into gear, or as some would say, knock the rust off from the off-season.
I'm confident we all get that.
As it is, you normally have 4 games spread over 4 weekends, ie 16 quarters. And yes, we want to reduce the length of the preseason, but we don't want to reduce the quantity of snaps, because it matters for the 40-50 players of the 90-man rosters who are not mortal locks to make the team.
So here we go.
3 games total.
(4 is too many, but 2 is too few--a player could be sick or injured for one game, and then you're left to evaluate him on the basis of just that one. And you want to be able to see how well players can correct their errors based on the coaching they receive. If 2 games, there's really only one between-games window to use to observe that.)
The third game is your normal 4 quarter game.
The first and second games, though, are something like some of us experienced in high school when you had the varsity game preceded by the junior varsity game.
That is, before the normal 4 quarter game starts, there is what amounts to a "junior varsity" half (2 quarters) played, in which there are rules that restrict teams to play players who were not normally on an NFL team's active roster in the previous season.
So, in essence, the first two games are great for serious fans who want to arrive early enough to watch the "junior varsity" half. It's football nirvana for many of us... six quarters of football... just a great day to be alive.
Someone will ask, "Well, but that only gives you one more weekend for one more regular season game--and part of this, too, is that the league wants to get to 18 regular season games. That's only 17, and of course, you can't have an odd number of regular season games. How do you get to 18?"
Here's how.
We start on Labor Day weekend instead of the weekend after, but then, we eliminate the bye weekend. That's 18 games over 18 weekends then.
But of course, it's a lot to expect players to play 18 straight games, and on top of that, for many, to play into a post-season.
So, in place of the bye weekend, simply institute the new rule that players are limited to being active for only 17 of the 18 games.
(Personally, I'd even prefer that it be 16 of the 18. Heck, 15 even, imo. But I figure there'd be too much brushback on anything more than 17.)
Summary: Instead of 16 quarters over 4 weekends, incorporate "JV halves" (though I'm sure there's probably a more appealing name we can give them) in constructing 16 quarters over 3 weekends. Take that Labor Day weekend that we've been using for that final preseason game, and start the regular season then. Trade-off the bye weekend for a new rule that says players can only play 17 of the 18 regular season games.
Done.
