August has finally arrived! It’s absurdly hot and central air conditioning has truly never felt better. Baseball season has been in full swing, but with months left until the postseason (that is if you are lucky enough to have a team that isn’t dreadful) a nice change would be welcomed. Enter preseason football, a much-debated topic for NFL fans, players, and coaches alike. The most recent debates have centered around if the NFL should expand the regular season to 18 games (from 16, I gotchu), and shorten the generally considered pointless preseason. Don’t get me wrong, I get some juice going for the first NFL preseason game especially when my team has been getting hyped day after day by beat reporters, but after watching far too much of the likes of Matt McGloin and Nate Peterman (honestly insert any generic boy name) I am ready to declare the preseason pointless.
There are 4 preseason games and typically the 3rd is the “dress rehearsal” for the opener, aka the starters all play what used to be a full half of football but has now diminished to about a series or two, maybe a quarter if you have a young QB that needs some more reps. The preseason is no longer a measuring stick, in fact, I’d argue the better your team looks in the preseason, run, run for the hills. I love following the NFL on twitter but is anything worse than the preseason overreaction from our beloved beat writers? Maybe the news about Miley and Liam, but I digress. Injuries are the new black so forget about seeing any important player for more than a cameo, at best you may get a “friend of” the housewives’ type of appearance if you speak Bravo.
My strategy is to watch a quarter if it’s bearable, but don’t invest too heavily in preseason. Save your best fandom for the real deal in September and lean on twitter and your reliable sports sites to keep you in the loop on surprise studs and high drafted duds from your favorite team during training camp practices and the newer but awesome team joint practices. We are getting closer and closer to our first Sweet Sweet NFL Sunday and we are more excited than when Michael Scott thought Holly broke up with A.J!
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