NFL Preseason Games Should Stop For Good

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Preseason games are stupid! There, I said it. While preseason games are good practice for rookies and allow veterans to have a break before the regular season starts, the repercussions of them are what makes them so pointless.

For rookie quarterbacks like Marcus Mariota and Jameis Winston, preseason games are a must. After being in college for so long, they need more chances than just practice to get acclimated to how the NFL is set up and learn the playbook. That is a completely justifiable reason to still have preseason games. If preseason games were only played by rookies or those who need the extra practice, it shouldn’t be mandatory. Quarterbacks like Ben Roethlisberger and Aaron Rodgers made very seldom appearances in the preseason because they already know the system which is obvious. However, most of their lines actually participated.

Since the preseason started, almost every single game has been plagued with at least one injury and it’s usually a key player on the team’s roster. During the HOF Game, the Pittsburgh Steelers lost their only kicker, Shaun Suisham, the Washington Redskins lost their starting Tight End Niles Paul and most recently, the Packers look like they have lost one of their star wide receivers, Jordy Nelson. Regardless of how important their positions are, it is still pretty traumatic for a team to both lose a player and the player to unofficially lose the team.

When a team loses a player, it becomes business after that. They shop around free agents and then find who will be a replacement for said injured player. The injured player, however, must completely devote themselves to their health, working to get better and get back to the player they were before the injury. Clearly, that second one is easier said than done, but that’s the tough world of being a professional athlete.

One important thing that everyone seems to ignore is the fact that preseason games pretty much have no outcome on actual regular season games. Last year, the Dallas Cowboys lost all of their preseason games, but then proceeded to go 12-4 in the regular season. This year so far, the Redskins have won every single one of their preseason games but have only won seven regular season games in two years. Preseason games are basically games for the sake of games and if the “game” is so sacred, they shouldn’t exist.