It has been almost exactly six months that we have had to make do with no NFL to watch. However, all that changed last night as the official NFL pre-season commenced and continues thru the rest of this weekend with a full slate of games. Good news is that “Yes Virginia, the NFL is back.”
Bad news is that the NFL powers-that-be have continued to monkey with the T-V rights to view the games such that now it is a little like dealing with a hooker – if you want it, you’re gonna have to pay for it. Several of this season’s games will be on streaming channels that require a subscription in addition to your regular cable bill. Expect to hear much moaning and groaning about it from fans who don’t have these channels and therefore won’t be able to watch their guys in action.
The big on-the-field-change however, will be the implementation of some new kickoff rules. These changes have been enacted to try and minimize player injuries. The theory is that by shortening the playing field so to speak, they won’t be having 300 pound players running down field at full speed unloading on other 300 pound players also running at full speed.
No one is quite sure how this new “Dynamic Kickoff” rules change will work out. Thus, it has been implemented on a trial basis with tweaks to come if necessary. (For more lowdown on this rule change (click here.))
I tuned into the NFL’s “Hard Knocks” show featuring the Chicago Bears the other night because Brady and I will be visiting the NFL’s oldest stadium, Soldier Field next week to catch a Bears-Bengals pre-season game. Having checked out all of MLB’s Stadiums, Brady and I are now visiting NFL ones. (But not to forget about baseball, we are also making a return visit to Wrigley Field. Cubs on Friday; Bears on Saturday, now that’s a good weekend right?)
The word is that Soldier Field is on borrowed time because the Bears are lobbying for a new, neato spoleto stadium to replace it. With Soldier Field having undergone millions of dollars worth of major renovations in 2002-2003, all this new stadium churn seems a little foolish to me.
However, speaking of hard knocks, turns out that the stadium renovations were deemed a huge failure by just about everyone. This from Wiki:
In the “Hard Knocks” episode, there was this funny scene featuring the Bears’ Theo Benedet. Part of the training camp routine is to haze rookies by having them sing in front of their teammates. Check out how Theo took his performance to another level. Here’s hoping that he makes the team if for no ther reason than this “ballsy” performance.
Commanders play at noon tomorrow, so drop in Buzzy’s Country Store to check out Jayden Daniels’ debut as their starting quarterback. Anybody named Jay I got to root for.