Echo of the past

So, you want to know just what a Model T the NFL preseason has become, in the age of the Tesla?

It seems the old grid doesn't have to be ironclad.

Which is to say, Oakland and Green Bay played a preseason game up in Winnipeg last night, but did so on an 80-yard field. They put the goal line at the respective 10-yard lines, because the gridiron in Winnipeg was set to CFL dimensions, which means the goalposts were on the goal lines. So they had to move the goalposts back, which left a couple of holes in the turf where they'd been anchored.

A patch job was deemed insufficient by Packers coach Matt LaFleur. And so ...

And so, they improvised. Which of course would never happen in an actual game.

That it happened last night is a tacit admission that even the NFL doesn't think preseason games are worth a bucket of warm spit. Most of what they traditionally have been about -- evaluating rookies and end-of-benchers in order to set your roster -- seems superfluous in the age of the combine and individual workout, where every aspect of every potential draft pick is scrutinized to the point of absurdity.

Used to be training camp lasted five, six weeks, and its primary goal was to whip the lads into shape after an offseason of sitting on their assets. You needed preseason games then, just so the players could get their football legs back. They needed to hit, and be hit, in a time when the only thing they'd been hitting for six months was the all-you-can-eat-buffet at the local Stuff Yer Face Here.

Not so much now.

Now training camp lasts two weeks, because the players have already gone through mini-camps and OTAs and mini-OTA camps. And in most cases have been working out individually in the interim.

Hall of Fame defensive back Rod Woodson once told me he took all of about two weeks off at the end of every season. Then it was back to his workout-and-diet regimen. It was one of the reasons he was famously regarded as the fittest player in the NFL -- and he needed to be, because to one degree or another pretty much everyone was following similar regimens.

In short ... it's a different time. Which is why preseason games have become quaint anachronisms whose necessity long ago passed its expiration date. The only thing they're good for now is getting valuable commodities hurt in meaningless exhibitions. That they still exist at all is a testament only to the greed of the owners, for whom preseason games remain a source of revenue. It's why many of them make preseason games a mandatory part of their season ticket packages.

But enough is enough. The only argument to be made for preseason games anymore is that without them, play in the first week of the regular season is apt to be a tad rusty. To which the only apt response is "So what?"

Besides, NFL teams already conduct controlled scrimmages against one another during training camp. So what is truly the purpose of preseason games, other than another way for the NFL to fleece the paying customers?

Take your time answering. I'll wait.