There's Got To Be A Better Way For NFL Preseason Games

Come on and say it with me -- the NFL preseason/exhibition format sucks!

Many teams aren't playing their starters (see the Green Bay Packers and Los Angeles Rams for example), yet the owners still charge full-game prices to watch a bunch of players named "WhoDat".

Ridiculous.

And Thursday's Packers-Raiders game in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada -- a totally FUBARed situation -- only exasperates the situation. Playing on an 80-yard-long field? Seriously? Put the blame on the Raiders (they shopped around for a game site after stepping away from $500,000 to rent the Oakland Coliseum for the game) and the NFL itself for not stepping in earlier and making sure the field was up to their standards.

There has to be a better alternative, one which the players AND the owners can find middle ground and agree. The owners, bless their money-grubbing hearts, want to see an 18-game regular season. The players, concerned about player health, want to stay at 16 but probably wouldn't mind an extra off-week.

So here's what I'm proposing (in my role of NFL Commissioner For A Day)...

The Canadian Football League has been around for a long, long time. Known as the CFL since 1958, it's roots actually go back to the 1800's and rugby. But by 1909, our neighbors to the north had moved away from their rugby roots and more towards American football.

North of the border, the league plays two preseason games, 18 regular season games AND still gives teams three bye weeks during the course of the season. The season starts the end of May, finishes up Thanksgiving weekend. That's six months of play.

The NFL currently starts playing in August, wraps up the first weekend in February -- roughly six months. So, if the league would turn the last two preseason games into regular season tilts (still a home and away format), provide two to three bye weeks, doesn't it seem like a win-win.

I would take it a step farther and eliminate the pathetic Thursday night games. OR assure teams of a bye week going into that Thursday game, thus ensuring a better product on the field.

And here's something the NFL Players Association could go for -- expand game-day rosters from 52 to 58 and the practice squad from 10 to 15 players. That's more jobs, more NFLPA members (and dues) and a few more bodies for Special Teams, etc.

Got a better idea? I'm listening.

Who Gets The Heisman?

Once Upon A Time...

...the Heisman Trophy was presented to the "best" college football player in America. Not the winningest, not the one with the biggest media machine. But the best football player.

Maybe that's why, in 1956, Paul Hornung of Notre Dame won the Heisman -- despite a 2-8 record!

You read that right. As a senior, Hornung's Fighting Irish won just two games. Yet the versatile Hornung, the 'Golden Boy" who would go on to a Hall of Fame career with the Green Bay Packers, was named the best college football player in the country.

He completed 49 of 111 passes for 917 yards with three touchdowns and 13 interceptions; he ran 94 times for 420 yards (a 4.5 average) and six touchdowns; he caught three passes for 26 yards. Hornung was responsible for 45.86% of Notre Dame's offense that season.

Sadly, those days are done. College football has evolved. Today, the Heisman seems to go to the best QUARTERBACK in the college world, usually the one who has won a national title or put up amazing numbers. Of the last 19 Heisman's, 16 have gone to quarterbacks.

So that means that Wisconsin's junior running back, Jonathan Taylor (who in two years totaled 4,171 yards and 29 touchdowns, including 2,194 yards and 16 TDs last season) is probably a long-shot to win the Heisman. The odds are also pretty good that Taylor will declare for the NFL draft after his junior season.