aluminum seats
Pro Bowl Player
- Joined
- Dec 18, 2006
- Messages
- 10,450
- Reaction score
- 11,330
There’s an annoying thing that always seems to happen, including here, that I would like to see stop.
It goes like this…a player is hurt in a preseason game. Unless it’s a player that pretty much nobody has ever heard of (and even then, some will pipe up that they really loved him and he was going to be an important part of the team), the complaints will start right away: “why was he in there??...what was Belichick doing?? Why was he playing in this game/this half/this quarter/this PLAY when he got hurt??”
Ugh. Please stop.
Football is the ultimate team game, we all agree. And for there to be value to the preseason, the team has to play. Want to get a sense of your backup QB? How exactly are you going to do that if he doesn’t play with anyone? (Which is why the whole “he got hurt in the FOURTH QUARTER” thing is particularly dopey. The game is the game.)
Now, I think there are exceptions, and not just for the preseason, but for meaningless regular season games. I don’t think I’ve ever been happier than when Belichick sat Gronkowski down against Buffalo. On the flip side, I think Bill screwed up in the past playing Harrison and Welker at the end of the year. But I wouldn’t hesitate to say exactly that before the game. Was anyone saying, “Brandon Gibson better not be out there in the preseason!” But sure enough, you heard about how he shouldn’t have been playing after he got hurt.
Sometimes guys get hurt. It sucks. But let’s stop making it worse by complaining after the fact that the guy shouldn’t have been playing at all.
It goes like this…a player is hurt in a preseason game. Unless it’s a player that pretty much nobody has ever heard of (and even then, some will pipe up that they really loved him and he was going to be an important part of the team), the complaints will start right away: “why was he in there??...what was Belichick doing?? Why was he playing in this game/this half/this quarter/this PLAY when he got hurt??”
Ugh. Please stop.
Football is the ultimate team game, we all agree. And for there to be value to the preseason, the team has to play. Want to get a sense of your backup QB? How exactly are you going to do that if he doesn’t play with anyone? (Which is why the whole “he got hurt in the FOURTH QUARTER” thing is particularly dopey. The game is the game.)
Now, I think there are exceptions, and not just for the preseason, but for meaningless regular season games. I don’t think I’ve ever been happier than when Belichick sat Gronkowski down against Buffalo. On the flip side, I think Bill screwed up in the past playing Harrison and Welker at the end of the year. But I wouldn’t hesitate to say exactly that before the game. Was anyone saying, “Brandon Gibson better not be out there in the preseason!” But sure enough, you heard about how he shouldn’t have been playing after he got hurt.
Sometimes guys get hurt. It sucks. But let’s stop making it worse by complaining after the fact that the guy shouldn’t have been playing at all.