Oof. Each year I forget just how ugly preseason football can be. With preseason down to 3 games and the limitations on padded practices, it takes awhile for teams to show their best.
I’m intrigued to see how different teams handle their rosters in preseason. Personally, I have no need to see veterans play in the preseason, but I do think those reps can be valuable for younger players or players with new systems. I’d want to see Trevor Lawrence and Travis Etienne out there for a couple of quarters, or to see how well Justin Fields can run a new offense. YMMV
The Raiders are a decent team and the Jaguars are a dumpster fire. And then Jacksonville plays their 3rd string QB Jake Luton (the 2020 6th round pick who has started 3 times in his career, all losses, and has a 2/6 TD/Int ratio). Luton, by the way, was the backup to C.J. Beathard. I’m surprised this game was as close as it was.
It is clear that we look at this differently and are unlikely to ever agree.
To my mind and to use your analogy with modifications: Imagine a tech company wants to target a competitor by poaching their best talent. But these companies and their employees have an agreement that poaching talent during the term of an employee’s contract is not permissible. Once the contract is up, then anyone is fair game, but not until then. In that case, I do blame both parties for the poaching, because everyone agreed not to do it.
Now, I will agree that the company in these analogies is more scummy than the employee and they do not share equal blame.
Atamasama’s analogy about adultery is spot on in my opinion, but he undersells it a little: in the case of Miami and Brady, I think it’s worse than just generic adultery because Miami was (and is) a division rival. That’s like having an affair with your best friend’s wife, not just some random married woman.
I say this pretty much every time it comes up, but football is like pizza. Even when it’s bad, it’s still pretty good and I will consume it. I’ll watch terrible football 10 times out of 10 over some crap reality TV show, dumb scripted shows made for Boomers, or whatever disposable junk is on deep cable this week. Certainly preseason games can be vanilla and occasionally sloppy, but the 3rd and 4th stringers on these teams are still usually incredible athletes and fun stuff happens.
When people demoan bad football, that usually means a QB hitting 40% of his passes instead of 60%…so like 5 more incompletions or drops a game. Or a defense that simply doesn’t blitz and plays mostly base coverage. The difference between “bad” and “good” football is pretty slim in my opinion.
The annual bitch fest about preseason has always seemed odd, unless you’re a season ticket holder and still getting charged full price for the games since I think that’s unique for the NFL.
I’ve got the NFL network now and it’s always on at the sports bars I go to. It’s not like preseason football is preempting other, more interesting programming. August is a pretty slim month on the North American sports calendar, and even for MLB, it’s past the trade deadline so you’re seeing plenty of teams just playing out the season now.
There’s a reason the Little League World Series gets so much ESPN coverage because they just don’t have much more until the US Open (tennis)
It’s the heart of the season for CFL football, which often gets carried here on ESPN now. Alas, there’s not a game on at the moment. (Also, I know I’m in the distinct minority, as a US-based CFL fan. )
I’m sitting at a sports bar with just the Sky and the White Sox tonight as there’s basically nothing else to fill up the rest of the TVs. A CFL game would be fun.
Marshawn Lynch arrested for DUI in Las Vegas. I know I’m assuming, but I think it’s reasonable that Las Vegas Metro PD has seen a lot of DUIs in their case history.
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