National Football League exhibition season
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The National Football League exhibition season refers to the NFL's pre-season games before the NFL regular season starts. Each NFL team plays four exhibition games. The start of the exhibition season is intrinsically tied to the last week of Training camp.
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[edit] Exhibition Season
The summer sees most NFL teams playing four exhibition games (referred to by the NFL as "preseason games;" the league discourages the use of the term "exhibition game") from early August through early September. The Pro Football Hall of Fame Game does not count toward the normal allotment of four games, so the two teams playing in that contest (one AFC and one NFC) each end up playing five exhibition games.
For several years through 1977, the NFL season consisted of 14 regular season games and six exhibition games. Starting 1978, the regular season was expanded to 16 games, and the exhibition season was cut from six to four games.
The games are useful for new players that are not used to playing in front of very large crowds. Management often uses the games to evaluate newly signed players. Veteran players will generally play only for about a quarter of each game so they can avoid injury.
Still, pro football is popular enough that many fans are still willing to pay full price for exhibition games so that they may guarantee themselves a seat during the season. This is evidenced by the fact that many teams are sold out on a season ticket basis and have large waiting lists where people are willing to pay a one-time or annual fee for the privilege of remaining on the waiting list. There are some teams that offer promotions and discounts to fill the stands for preseason games; an example of this is the Buffalo Bills' annual "Kids Day" promotion, where tickets, already the lowest priced in the league, are slashed to bargain-basement prices (around $10) for children under 12.
Prior to the commencement of the International Series, the NFL had another "featured" preseason game by the name of the American Bowl. This matchup, which was a "fifth" preseason game for the two teams involved and was (often) played on the same weekend as the Hall of Fame Game, was played outside the United States, usually in Mexico or Japan; in the latter case, it often resulted in games that started at 5:00 A.M. U.S. Eastern time. The American Bowl was held from 1986 to 2005; similar international matches had occurred regularly since 1969.
For a brief time in the late 1990s and early 2000s, some preseason teams played their own games (usually four to six other teams took part) over Hall of Fame weekend and took a bye week somewhere else in the preseason. This was abandoned after the Houston Texans were added to the league in 2002.
The games do not count toward any statistics, streaks, season standings or records whatsoever. For instance, the two losses incurred by the 2007 New England Patriots during the preseason will not count against them, and if they had won Super Bowl XLII, it would still have been considered to be a perfect season despite these losses.
[edit] Television and radio
Although several exhibition games are broadcast nationally, most are broadcast by local television stations and produced by the teams themselves. Exhibition games are almost exclusively played at night due to hot summer weather, and are frequently scheduled based on local convenience (e.g. games on the west coast tend to start at 7:00 p.m. PT/10:00 p.m. ET). The league's blackout restrictions apply, although stations are allowed to play the game on a tape delay if the game does not sell out (unlike during the regular season, when rights revert to NFL Films).
NFL Network airs many preseason games on tape delay using local broadcasters' game broadcasts, in addition to a weekly live game using its own crew.
With the exception of the Hall of Fame Game, which is carried by Westwood One, there is no national radio play-by-play of preseason games. Furthermore, preseason games are still carried by the teams' local radio networks, but the affiliate count is reduced due to conflict with baseball and local sports as well as reduced demand. Despite this, the league's subscription FieldPass still charges full price for Internet audio of these games.
[edit] Matchups
Unlike the regular season, the preseason matchups are not based on any arbitrary or set formula.
The NFL schedules the matchups for all of the exhibition games. Since 2002, individual teams have been allowed to negotiate their own deals to play each other during the preseason. The league allows individual teams to provide input into desired matchups and determines the matchups for any games that were not individually negotiated; however, the league sets all game dates and times. The exhibition season schedule is released in the spring, shortly before the regular season schedule is announced. The NFL has set a loose precedent of determining preseason matchups:
- No two teams will face each other in the same preseason more than once.
- No NFL team will play a team outside the league. (See below)
- Teams in the same division will not play one another during the preseason.
- The league shys away from teams playing in the preseason if they are scheduled to play in the regular season. However, this is not always avoidable, and not always the case.
- Interconference game (AFC vs. NFC) matchups are common, since regular season matchups between interconference teams are infrequent (interconference teams play each other only once every four years during the regular season).
- Geographically close matchups are preferred, to provide teams with minimal (if possible) preseason travel. As such, intra-state rivals are frequent matchups, provided they are not already division foes (Giants/Jets, Ravens/Redskins, Eagles/Steelers, 49ers/Raiders, Bucs/Dolphins/Jaguars, etc., are all frequent preseason matchups). Two of these in-state matchups are known as "Governor's Cups," one in Texas and the other in Missouri.
- After the division realignment in 2002, the NFL factors in former division rivalries, broken due to teams moving to different divisions.
The teams that play in the Pro Football Hall of Fame Game are determined solely by the league (and the Hall of Fame), featuring one AFC team and one NFC team. Its matchup is announced well ahead of the rest of the schedule, in February. If there has been an expansion team added to the league, that team will always play in the Hall of Fame game (Carolina, Jacksonville, Cleveland and Houston all played in their respective expansion seasons).
[edit] Non-league opponents
The College All-Star Game, usually the first game of the preseason, was played annually in Chicago from 1934 to 1976, and featured the NFL or Super Bowl champion against an all-rookie team of college all-stars. After the game became lopsided in favor of the NFL, it was abandoned. Between 1950 and 1961, the NFL also attempted exhibition matches against the Canadian Football League (mixing NFL and CFL rules); these, too, were abandoned after the NFL was winning every single match. Since 1976, no NFL team has ever faced a team outside the league.
[edit] Schedule
The exhibition season typically begins the first weekend of August with the Hall of Fame Game. Previous seasons have seen the American Bowl game held the last weekend of July. The first full weekend of preseason games are held the following weekend. Most games are held Thursday nights, Friday nights, and Saturday nights, with each week having one nationally televised game each night of the week: NFL Network airing a Thursday game, CBS and Fox a Friday and Saturday night game each, NBC with Sunday night games, and ESPN a Monday night game. Unlike the regular season, CBS's and Fox's national preseason games are regardless of conference. Four full weekends of games are held. The fourth and final full week of preseason games (fifth weekend overall) usually sees teams play exclusively on Thursday night and Friday night only, with no national games. This allows teams a few extra days to prepare for the first week of the regular season. It also prevents conflict with the start of the high school and college football season, which expands their first weekends' games from Thursday through Monday (Labor Day).
Nationally televised preseason games start at 8:00 PM Eastern Time, while other games usually start at 7:00 PM local time.
[edit] Controversy
Currently, every NFL team requires their season ticket holders to purchase tickets at full price for two preseason games as a requirement to purchase regular-season tickets. Complaints regarding this policy have gone all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, but have failed to change the policy. A judgment in 1974 stated: "No fewer than five lawsuits have been instituted from Dallas to New England, each claiming that the respective National Football League (NFL) team had violated the Sherman Act by requiring an individual who wishes to purchase a season ticket for all regular season games to buy, in addition, tickets for one or more exhibition or preseason games." [1]
Additionally, some players, coaches, and journalists object to the 4-week preseason schedule. Players have little monetary incentive to play in the preseason, since they are paid only a training-camp per diem for these games, their salaries do not begin until the regular season, and thus they are essentially playing them "for free". In spite of this, the risk of injury during the preseason is just as great as during the regular season. Nearly every year, marquee players are lost for the season due to injuries in exhibition games. In spite of these objections, owners continue to endorse the four-game preseason, as they are an easy source of revenue, and thus are unlikely to go away in the foreseeable future. [2]
[edit] References
- ^ Angelo F. Coniglio v. Highwood Services, Inc., 495 F.2d 1286 (2d Cir. 1974-04-17).
- ^ Starkey, Joe (2006-08-17). Exhibition overkill. Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Retrieved on 2006-11-17.
