Reasons To Watch the Preseason: Part I

It's that time of year again!

Everyone says that the preseason is pointless. It's not competitive, it happens during baseball season, Peyton Manning doesn't play, blah blah blah. Hey, why don't we just get rid of the preseason entirely and make the regular season longer?

Yeah, try telling that fourth-string quarterback from Southwestern Mississippi State that the league should abolish the preseason. Many players spend this little-known and often-neglected portion of the NFL calendar fighting for their jobs. For all NFL fans know, this seemingly random player could turn out to be the next Kurt Warner. And then all those preseason-hating fans will wonder where he came from, when the opportunity to watch him in his early days was right there the whole time.

Anyway, the point I'm trying to make is that there are in fact reasons to watch the preseason. With six games televised during the first week alone, there are numerous opportunities to tune in. And here's why you should:

1) Watching your favorite team on national TV. As a Raiders fan, I know this all too well; certain teams like Dallas and Pittsburgh, regardless of how bad they are, just dominate the primetime spotlight. It's all based on money, because more people will tune in if "America's Team" is playing, right? Well, NFL Network doesn't really care during the preseason, which is why the Raiders, Bills, and Colts get nationally televised games during Week 1. So, if you live in, say, the Buffalo metropolitan area, don't have Sunday Ticket, and you want to see if E.J. Manuel is the real deal, what better time to do so than in August?

2) Interconference matchups. Each team only plays one division from the opposite conference each year, and the divisions alternate. This is why, for example, we don't see the Jets and the Giants play very often. Well, in preseason, the scheduling formula is thrown out in favor of traveling convenience for team buses, which is why we see more regional rivalries. This is how an uncommon but intriguing Chargers-Seahawks matchup ends up televised in preseason.

3) Rookies. Denard "Shoelace" Robinson may be a popular player, but we're not going to see much of him during the regular season, which is why Jaguars fans may want to tune in to see him on NFL Network in Week 2. Same with other "local hero" type rookies, or popular undrafted players like Lions kicker Havard "Kickalicious" Rugland. He may not make the Week 1 rosters, but we can witness his impressive range in preseason.

As the preseason progresses, I will continue to update my blog with preseason previews and recaps.
Week 1 officially begins August 8th with Bengals-Falcons on ESPN being the first televised game. More coming soon!