Football (american football to those across the pond!)

[J-Sun]

Oh, in completely different news, I noticed this story about your quarterback, Grim, though you've probably seen it. I'd like to hear fewer excuses out of him, even though I think most of them are valid. But, Redskin or no, I kind of like the guy and feel like he can be a good one - if not with the Skins, then with someone. I don't know why the Skins organization doesn't have the same confidence.

-- Interesting. Maybe it's because they drafted him. Kirwan at nfl.com has this in an article about teams with the most/best and least/worst draft picks starting in 2009 (how he can know who's starting before camp and preseason, I dunno, but we'll assume it's in the universe of correct):

Top five: Indianapolis Colts 17, Baltimore Ravens 16, Green Bay Packers 16, Pittsburgh Steelers 15, Buffalo Bills 15.

Bottom five: Washington Redskins 9, Denver Broncos 9, Cleveland Browns 9, Detroit Lions 10, Oakland Raiders 10.

With some obvious exceptions, the top five are also some of the best teams in general and the bottom five are some of the worst.

[Culhwch]

Originally Posted by J-Sun

Sad news (on a happy day in the U.S.) regarding Steve McNair:

link 1
link 2
link 3

That's just terrible news...

[Grimward]

I was out of town in a remote part of Virginia's eastern shore (you have to drive 15 miles to get a newspaper, and as for the internet, well, forget it!). Didn't hear about it until Monday night, and I thought the guy was joking with me. Terrible!

[Grimward]

Well, now we're spending our 2010 draft choices. ESPN's John Clayton seems to think the choice was wise; me, I'm not so sure (but it's no secret our defensive ends are getting a little long in the tooth....)

[Grimward]

Ah yes, August and Training Camp are here. Different this year for the Skins because all of their draft picks are signed (Orakpo, the DL/LB picked in the first round, signed yesterday). Let the speculation begin (and the silly, needless, season-ending training camp/preseason injuries... ).

[Parson]

Originally Posted by Grimward

Ah yes, August and Training Camp are here. Different this year for the Skins because all of their draft picks are signed (Orakpo, the DL/LB picked in the first round, signed yesterday). Let the speculation begin (and the silly, needless, season-ending training camp/preseason injuries... ).

The pre-season games are very likely unnecessary (unless you are looking from a financial angle) But the camp is highly necessary to put in defensive and offensive schemes, to bring new players up to speed, to evaluate talent, to bring some players into playing shape, and to build team unity, to name just a few.

[J-Sun]

Speaking of silly injuries: the Vikes can't catch a break. Unless this would encourage Favre to change his mind yet again. But, seriously, it seems minor - just struck me weird.

Disagree about preseason, though. While it's not a real game, it's a lot closer to it than practice and especially useful for rookies - 11 on 11 in full pads; you get surprised by players and coaches you're less familiar with than your own counterparts; you're in front of a large audience; you may be on TV - it's a great way to warm up your first team, try out new schemes in real-world scenarios, and to give those people trying to make the team a chance to really prove themselves in the second half. I like the whole sequence of OTAs, camp, pre, regular, post.

Plus, I'm on the defensive about the Goodell's insanity of trading in a couple of preseason games for yet more regular season games. We gotta nip that one in the bud.

[Grimward]

Originally Posted by Parson

The pre-season games are very likely unnecessary (unless you are looking from a financial angle) But the camp is highly necessary to put in defensive and offensive schemes, to bring new players up to speed, to evaluate talent, to bring some players into playing shape, and to build team unity, to name just a few.

I recognize that you need a training camp, Parse; I just think it's too long. Especially nowadays, when the so-called "Optional" training workouts are really mandatory. The NFL ought to negotiate with the player's union and find a way to start camp with fewer than 80 players to evaluate. I know there's a lot to that, but teams just seem to lose too many players over the 6 weeks that lead up to the opening game.

I think, from comments here during last season, that most agree that there are too many preseason games, too. I say, have two games with the reduced starting roster size to whittle it down to the final 42 (45? I forget what the final number is...), and tack 2 more games onto the regular season.

[J-Sun]

Originally Posted by Grimward

I say, have two games with the reduced starting roster size to whittle it down to the final 42 (45? I forget what the final number is...), and tack 2 more games onto the regular season.

Yep, I'd rather have an emergency ward for the Super Bowl and poor rookies on stretchers rather than the ocassional nick or ding in the preseason. And where does it stop? That leaves open getting rid of those final pesky preseason games and making regular season 20 or 22 games long! It's got to stop some time and 16 is a fine spot. I had no problems expanding to 16 (4x4 games - at least before they added the bye week, which bugs me - which finally worked out nicely when they finally got 32 teams) but more is too much. Not to mention that all the old greats get all their 14 game season records eclipsed with the incomparable 16 game season and all those records, if broken, would be broken disproportionately. And on and on. (Yes, as a football fan, I'd love it to be year-round - let's have 52 games! - but it's just not realistic, so you have to draw the line at the point that's the best for the game and not for the owners' and broadcasters' wallets.)

The final roster's 53, of which you can suit 45 for game day, btw.

[Grimward]

Yeah, after I posted, I remembered that the official roster was higher. Still think they could come into camp with less, though, and cut the preseason length.

Who said anything about doing away with the preseason all together, or a 52 week season? Getting a little carried away, aren't you?

And it's not an occasional ding or nick. A sampling of last season's notable starters who were injured in the 2008 preseason:

Buffalo Bills: Trent Edwards
Carolina Panthers: Muhsin Muhammad
Cincinnati Bengals: Carson Palmer, Chad Johnson (not going to call him the other name), Rudi Johnson, T.J. Houshmandzadeh
Cleveland Browns: Derek Anderson, Braylon Edwards, Jamal Lewis

(Your Cowboys had none; maybe this is why it wasn't a big deal?)

Detroit Lions: Jason Hanson
Green Bay Packers: James Jones
Houston Texans: Ahman Green, Chris Brown
Indianapolis Colts: (also dodged the injury bullet for most of their starters....Manning was still recovering from off-season surgery)
Jacksonville Jaguars: Maurice Jones-Drew, Jerry Porter, Reggie Williams
K.C. Chiefs (another dodger)
Miami Dolphins: Ronnie Brown
Minnesota Vikings: Robert Ferguson, Tavaris Jackson
New Orleans Saints: Reggie Bush, Marques Colston
New England Patriots: Lamont Jordan
New York Giants: Osi Umenyiora (lost for the season)
New York Jets: Lavernues Coles
Oakland Raiders: Drew Carter (lost for the season), Sebastian Janikowski
Philadelphia Eagles: Reggie Brown
Pittsburgh Steelers (none)
San Diego Chargers: Lawrence Tynes (Merriman aggravated an already existing injury)
Seattle Seahawks: Matt Hasselbeck
San Francisco 49ers: Brent Johnson
St. Louis Rams: Orlando Pace (but he'd been on and off with the injury previously)
Tennesee Titans: LenDale White
Washington Redskins: both of their starting DEs, then emergency trade Jason Taylor

Granted, one never knows just how "injured" those listed on the report really are.....

[J-Sun]

Originally Posted by Grimward

Who said anything about doing away with the preseason all together, or a 52 week season? Getting a little carried away, aren't you?

Yep. I was just exaggerating to show that it's got to stop some time and now's a good time.

Originally Posted by Grimward

And it's not an occasional ding or nick. A sampling of last season's notable starters who were injured in the 2008 preseason:

[snip]

(Your Cowboys had none; maybe this is why it wasn't a big deal?)

The one advantage to Camp Cupcake! No, again, that was rhetorical minimization rather than exaggeration. I don't deny that injuries occur. I just think they're more likely fighting for your playoff lives in the 18th game of the season than practicing or playing preseason games. And, if a player was going to get injured, better early on, giving him a chance to recover, than late. Also, I wouldn't look at it as players getting pointlessly injured. While playoff games are "more important" than regular season games, and those more than preseason, it's all vital. You've simply got to practice and that leaves you open to injury - but if you don't practice you kind of pre-injure yourself by being out of shape and blunting your skills (I know there are your Tomlinsons and all but that's the exception and I suspect they're just self-motivated people who practice plenty in their own way.)

Anyway - the only pointless injury would be if, say, Romo threw out his shoulder golfing or... well, some other non-football exercise.

You might not be too far off, though. Maybe my opinions are strengthened by a Dallas bias lately - we have had weak preseasons and end up with weak (or non-existent) postseasons. The Camp Cupcake thing is no exaggeration and I'm pleased to see Wade knocking a few more heads this year. It has cost us some injuries to our perenially gimpy receivers and all, but I just hope it toughens us up.

[J-Sun]

FOOTBALL!!

The Hall of Fame Game is on NBC here in the states. The Bills vs. the Oilers.

me == happy

[Culhwch]

Ah, NFL.com gamecenter, how I've missed you of a Monday and Tuesday morning...

I'm not sure where I sit on expanding the season. Over here we have the National Rugby League which runs for twenty-six (yes, twenty-six) regular season games before hitting a four-week postseason. Now league is a full-contact sport, played with no pads across two non-stop forty-minute halves, where eight or nine players per side are expected to play the full eighty minutes, three or four more will play sixty minutes, and the four reserves play maybe forty minutes on average. Injuries are a problem, but no more than they are in the NFL. (Oh, and the best forty or so players also play a test match and a three-game State of Origin series in the middle of the season, and these are like regular season games on steroids.) So on the one hand I don't see the issue in increasing the regular season to eighteen games, but I do know that a season can be too long - and twenty-six rounds is far too long - so I'm happy for it to stay at sixteen.

[Culhwch]

That fake punt to open the scoring was cheeky. I loved it.

[J-Sun]

Originally Posted by Culhwch

That fake punt to open the scoring was cheeky. I loved it.

Me, too. That's one reason I love preseason - you're not likely to see a 40 yard touchdown run from 4th and 10 in the regular season. It was an excellently designed and executed fake, though. The game ended with an interesting non-punt, too. So Trapasso netted 6 yards for 5 points on two rushes.

Football without John Madden on the sidelines or in the booth is going to be weird, to say the least. And I can't believe I have to put up with Chris Collinsworth even more than I had to before. But the Madden talk and clips were nice - I'm glad they honored him in those ways.

And, of course, honors are the main thing with this game - congrats to the new class of Hall of Famers, including Bullet Bob Hayes at long last.

Anyway - it's not regular season but for 3 or more hours each week from now on, all can be right with the world again.