A year ago, the NFL changed its schedule by decreasing the number of preseason games to three, and increasing the regular season schedule to 17 games. However, there’s still debate over the necessity of preseason games.

There have been preseason games since the NFL was founded in 1920, but fans and some players regularly raise arguments against the league’s preseason.

I have never been a fan of the exhibition games, in fact, I rarely if ever watch a preseason game. The games don’t count, so they really are meaningless, and to me, they are boring. I certainly would never pay for a ticket to go to a preseason game, even if my Buffalo Bills were playing.

It really doesn’t matter if your team is 3-0 or 0-3 in the preseason, because the preseason record never correlates to the regular season. The starters generally play only a limited amount of time to avoid injuries, and so you never really get an accurate sense of what your team is going to be like this season.

One player, in particular who has not been fond of the preseason format is former Washington star running back Clinton Portis. He dislocated his shoulder during a preseason game in 2006 and missed half the season.

“I’ve always been against the preseason,” Portis said. “It should be used to evaluate new talent, the people trying to make it. You only need two or three games to evaluate that talent. Just play the guys who are trying to make the team.”

I don’t totally agree with his assessment, but he does have a point. I believe that even the veteran players need a little bit of game time experience and reps going into the regular season, but of course it’s the players who are trying to make the squad that should get the most playing time, so coaches can evaluate their abilities.

Prior to last year’s schedule change, teams played between four and six preseason games. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell was critical of the preseason format before the change, saying in 2019, “I feel what we should be doing is always to the highest quality, and I’m not sure preseason games meet that level right now.”

Obviously, the NFL teams would not want to eliminate the preseason games entirely, even though the ticket prices are a bit lower than regular season tickets, they still wouldn’t want to give up the opportunity to make that additional revenue at the gate and concessions.

Plus, broadcasting preseason games increases the leagues overall audience. An average preseason game will draw a viewership of 1.5-2 million people. The Hall of Fame game between the Jaguars and Raiders drew a total audience of 5.7 million viewers. That equates to a lot of advertiser dollars.

So, whether we like it or not, the NFL preseason serves a purpose, and we can continue to choose whether to watch or not, but I’m looking forward to the regular season kickoff on Sept. 8, with a Thursday night matchup featuring my Bills at the L.A. Rams.

NFL+ NOT WORTH IT

The NFL has a new subscription streaming service, but unlike NFL Sunday Ticket, I don’t see much value in NFL+.

This new service will allow you to watch out of market games only during the preseason, but during the regular season you’ll be able to live stream the games you normally would receive on your local channels and on any cable or satellite service you may already have.

The value of having NFL Sunday Ticket in the past has always been so I can watch the Buffalo Bills games when they are not on one of the national broadcasts; like, Sunday Night, Monday Night or Thursday Night Football.

NFL+ is not very expensive, only $29.99 for a limited time, for the whole season, but if I can’t watch the Bills games, it’s not worth it to me. If you know you won’t be home to watch many games on Sunday, and you’re a Dallas or Kansas City fan (teams we get on our local channels), then subscribing to NFL+ might be worth it for you, and you’ll be able to watch the games on your phone or tablet.