Saturday I watched my first NFL pre-season game, the Pittsburgh Steelers v. New York Giants. It was exciting to have the NFL back on television. However, after the first series and certainly by the end of the first half, I realized that it is still pre-season. It is not real football.
NFL Preseason Football
While I am interested in how the new draft picks are working out, pre-season seems to be more about hoping no one gets hurt. Two years ago, the Steelers pre-season seemed to result in a new devastating injury to a top draft pick with each game. I tend to watch the Steelers pre-season games with excitement punctuated by dread and fear.
By the end of the third-quarter, I was getting bored in the Steelers/Giants game. The play by both teams was filled with more errors by players than good plays. Many of the players in the second half will likely not be on either team come the first game of the real season September 4th. The game didn’t seem real.
As I thought about it, the training camps were similar to the pre-season games. When camps opened, I was very excited about the new season. I couldn’t wait to hear how the new draft picks were doing. But, after a while I became bored about news from training camps. By this time of the pre-season, every team is supposedly doing well. Yet, I knew from experience that only a handful of teams are actually having a good pre-season.
One item from camp always seems interesting though. Fights at practice. Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones was “impressed” at the fight between safety J.J. Wilcox and wide receiver Dez Bryant. Chicago Bears coach Marc Trestman suspended tight end Martellus Bennett for fighting with rookie cornerback Kyle Fuller. I was interested in the fights because they are unscripted. They are the closest thing to real play, real emotion as in a regular season game.
Thus, what I realized is that until I can insert my football fantasy lineup September 4th, it is not real football. It is not real until it is fantasy. I can’t wait for the actual 2014 NFL season to begin.
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