Well, Dennis Dixon confirmed my previous blog Sunday night.
-Rick Kazmer
rickk@dailyamerican.com
Should the NFL go to 18 regular season games?
(This column is part of a debate series available in Tuesday’s Daily American.)
Yes
By RICK KAZMER
Watching third-string scrubs blunder through late minutes of pre-season football is a waste of potential meaningful NFL time.
The league should expand the regular season to 18 games and eliminate two of the exhibition debacles that fans now endure four times a year. One, maybe two of the games are necessary to gauge who will be starters and backups. But expecting anyone to demonstrate their true potential on a field of young nobodies is ridiculous.
The errors of the inexperienced in some cases do more harm than good. Pittsburgh quarterback Byron Leftwich was lucky to leave the field standing Sunday in Denver (after Head Coach Mike Tomlin strangely played him with backups) because the scrub line in front of him was obviously unorganized and outplayed. It is sad when a team loses its season because the star player is injured in an exhibition game. And there is no need for the loss.
Coaches can get an adequate idea of a player’s individual talent in training camp. If team staffs want more time to evaluate players, then give them longer training camps.
The NFL season is short. Regular season games are better than pre-season games. It makes sense to enact the proposed scheduling adjustment.
(City Editor Rick Kazmer can be reached at rickk@dailyamerican.com.)