Scott Cordischi On Sports: NFL Needs To Stop The Foolishness
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Greed can be a terrible thing. Unless, of course, you own an NFL franchise.
How else can you explain the fact that the league still has 4 preseason games each year which they charge full price for?
While it has been talked about for the past few years, the time is now for the NFL to reduce the preseason from 4 to 2 games, even if it means making a few less bucks than you normally would.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTLet’s face it. If you were one of the people who spent your hard earned money to go to Gillette Stadium Monday night to see the Patriots host the Philadelphia Eagles, you probably weren’t too thrilled that you didn’t get to see Tom Brady, Wes Welker, Rob Gronkowski, Vince Wilfork, Jerod Mayo and others play in the game.
With a stretch of 3 games in 10 days facing his team, Pats’ coach Bill Belichick decided to rest many of his star players. And who can blame him?
Meanwhile, Philadelphia coach Andy Reid decided to play his starting quarterback Michael Vick who was injured in the meaningless game, a decision he probably regrets in retrospect.
Yes, preseason games can be a helpful tool for a coach to evaluate some of the so-called “bubble” players on his roster. It is also a time for teams to sharpen their skills in preparation for the regular season. Other than that, there really aren’t any good reasons to play the games.
Beyond the fact that the results of the games are absolutely meaningless, they also present a risk for injury as witnessed Monday night with Michael Vick.
Even on nights when a coach does decide to play many of his regular starters, it’s still a crime to charge full price for tickets to the games. The starters may play for a series or two or a quarter of football before being relegated to the bench in favor of guys who will be driving a UPS truck in just a few weeks time.
ESPN’s Monday Night Football play-by-play man Mike Tirico took the league to task on the air Monday night suggesting that the league also reduce the number of preseason games from 4 to 2. We realize that this will mean one less gate of revenue for NFL owners, but there are ways to make some if not all of that up.
As Tirico suggested, maybe teams ought to hold more joint practices like the Patriots and Saints did a couple of weeks ago in Foxboro and like the Pats and Bucs are doing now in Tampa. And, instead of having the two play a preseason game, they could hold a controlled scrimmage inside their stadiums doing 7-on-7 drills where the quarterbacks wear their red no-contact jerseys.
This would allow NFL fans to see quarterbacks like Tom Brady and Drew Brees throw 50-60 passes as opposed to sitting on the bench all night. It would also prevent injuries to star players like the two of them.
NFL owners, instead of adding this scrimmage at full price to their season ticket packages, could charge $10 general admission. They would attract some fans who otherwise might not be able to afford to attend an NFL game and they would still reap the revenue from concessions.
Another option which has been discussed in recent years is taking away 2 preseason games and adding them to the regular season. This would not only mean no revenue loss for NFL owners, it would increase their profits as new television contracts for an 18-game regular season would surely command billions more than what is already being paid.
This, however, would have to be approved by the NFLPA who would want its piece of the financial pie so-to-speak. After all, two more regular season games would put all of the players at more risk than they face now when they often sit for a majority of the preseason games.
Whatever the case may be, the NFL must consider reducing the amount of preseason games immediately starting next season. If not, they need to stop charging fans full ticket price to attend those games.
-Why did the Red Sox wait until late August to fire pitching coach Bob McClure? Could they possibly be considering bringing Bobby Valentine back in 2013?
-I guess Bartolo Colon didn’t discover the Fountain of Youth after all.
-This could be the year of the rookie quarterback in the National Football League with as many as five rookies possibly starting league-wide. Colts’ QB Andrew Luck, Washington’s Robert Griffin III, Cleveland’s Brandon Weeden and Miami’s Ryan Tannehill are all expected to start for their teams in week one. And Russell Wilson has impressed Pete Carroll in Seattle as well.
-WEEI’s Kirk Minehane is an up and coming star on the sports radio scene in Boston. He’s opinionated and interesting unlike some of the other sports talk hosts in the market.
-The handling of the Carl Crawford situation is just another example of what’s wrong with the Boston Red Sox these days.
-Oops! I had better be careful because I don’t want Larry Lucchino to suggest again that we members of the media have contributed to this team’s troubles this season.
-Let’s see. First they tried to blame it on Terry Francona, then Theo Epstein. Now it’s the media’s fault according to Red Sox ownership. Is that about right?
-I refuse to panic about the Patriots’ offensive line until I see Logan Mankins and Sebastian Vollmer back out on the field as part of the starting line-up. Just the mere presence of Mankins to his right may help the struggling Nate Solder out at left tackle.
-Deion Branch or Donte Stallworth? It sure seems like it may come down to those two guys for one spot on the Patriots roster.
-I was talking with an NHL player who did not want to be named who said that the labor dispute between the players and the owners has a long way to go. Apparently the revenue split under the current collective bargaining deal calls for a 57%-43% revenue split in favor of the players. The owners now want to reverse that to 57%-43% in their favor. That appears to be a much too drastic swing from CBA to CBA. A 50-50 split seems like it would be more palatable to both sides.
-Line of the week comes from The Sports Hub’s Tony Massarotti who was talking to Peter Gammons on the air on Wednesday. Gammons had mentioned that there were all sorts of clinics going on at Fenway Park to which Massarotti replied, “are there any AA clinics there?”
-Mark it down. The Big East Conference headquarters will not remain in Providence for long. With the new, expanded Big East, it only makes sense to have a more centrally located office.
-PC Friar fans who haven’t seen Ricky Ledo play should check out the youtube video of him and John Wall. It’s pretty impressive!
-Not that we know about Ledo’s eligibility yet. I’ve seen snails move faster than the NCAA clearinghouse.
-Baseball caps with the flat visors are “in” in case you didn’t know, homey!
-I wonder why Kelly Shoppach had to use Adrian Gonzalez’s phone to text Red Sox management? I just assumed that everyone had unlimited texting these days.
-At least that’s what it seems like when I’m driving and I look to my left or look to my right and see some nitwit texting. Just like when I’m stuck behind the moron texting after the light has turned green.
