Birds’ preseason has been unsightly for fans
PHILADELPHIA >> Before the week was up, the Eagles and Baltimore Ravens would engage in two contrasting methods of simultaneous preseason football preparation. For the usual reason, Doug Pederson would endorse one over the other. That reason: NFL coaches are self-absorbed inhabitants of a world only they believe is real.
In a trend that has been worsening for years, pro football coaches have so dismissed the concept of preseason games as to have made them nothing but reasons to drag a $40 parking fee and snack-stand money out of decent sports fans’ pockets. Such was the case again Thursday, when the Eagles would fall to the Baltimore Ravens, 26-15, and neither care nor apologize for 45 minutes of sub-professional effort before lightning sent everyone home early.
Not only do Pederson and almost every other coach miss the gross selfishness of such unprofessional conduct, most will gladly outline the reasons why they consider preseason games only as liability risks. When asked last week whether he preferred a few days of controlled, limited-contact joint practices with the Ravens or a night of football against them at the Linc, Pederson barely could recognize his own arrogance.
“I think that’s the trend,” he said of the practices. “I think that’s where we’re going. I think that’s the way the league is heading. I like it. I think the players like it. It does break up hitting your same teammates for so long. But the thing is about practice, and really a joint practice, as coaches, we get to set the situations. We get to control the environment. You don’t get that situation in a game and this way we can control that and work on specific things and get some really good work done with our starters.”
We get to, he kept saying.
We can, he kept saying. We will, he implied, and at whatever cost of basic business decency.
That’s what happened when the Eagles started Cody Kessler at quarterback and barely played presentable football. They missed one vital point: On some level, pro football is meant to entertain. And that level begins when any customer is made to pay to watch. Yet there was Pederson, in blissful ignorance, outlining how much better it was for his own self to prepare his players in relative privacy rather than on TV.
It was best for the coaches.
And when, just when, has any sports league been about the coaches?
“I remember back in the ‘90s when I was with the Dolphins and we used to go against Tampa Bay,” Pederson said. “We used to do this a lot. It’s been going on for a while and then it sort of stopped and I think the league controlled it a little bit. Now, it can be done right.
“We had great intensity, and a great practice. I mean, there was physicality to it. But guys were staying up. Guys were protecting each other, and you get good work in, and you want to have practices like that, especially going against good teams.
“So this is a good time for us to do this.”
NFL preseason games are part of the seasonticket package, and on TV, and deliver advertising revenues and are accepted under any agreement with the players’ union. So, they exist. But it’s reaching the point where any player asked to play more than a half-dozen snaps before a crowd in August is half-dirtied as a semipro desperate to win a roster spot.
By halftime Thursday, the Eagles were penalized a dozen times, were down, 26-0, and were exposed as inept. And that was with some important players clocking early minutes, among them Jason Peters, DeSean Jackson, Nelson Agholor, Malcolm Jenkins, Corey Clement and Brandon Graham. Pederson did get around to forcing Josh McCown onto the field during the first half, a practical move considering that the 40-year-old with the horrifying career won-loss record will be a smelling salt away from being the Eagles’ No. 1 quarterback once the regular season begins. And McCown did throw a 20-yard touchdown pass to JJ Arcega-Whiteside. But Carson Wentz was held out in a continuing effort to keep him healthy for the Sept. 8 opener. With that, the home portion of the exhibition season was over and the fans, who would have liked to have seen the $154,000,000 quarterback move around a little, did not have that chance.
Pederson, though, was able to control everything during those mostly private workouts against the same Ravens.
Control: The Eagles are addicted.They didn’t even find it neighborly to admit days in advance that Wentz would not play Thursday. That was not something they felt necessary.
Instead, they would hide their franchise quarterback behind the NewsControl Compound trees and use him only under minimal-contact rules.
“They are extremely valuable,” Wentz said of the joint practices. “Any time you can switch it up and see another defense, and the Ravens present different looks, it is good.
“For us, it is really important to see different looks.”
On their terms, it was important to see those looks. But for some reason, it wasn’t important to see those looks when people were paying to watch them see those looks.
Since the No. 1 quarterback customarily never played even when preseason games were not such blatant cash-grabs, Wentz will not be available until Week 1 against the Redskins. He’ll be healthy. The Eagles assured themselves of that.
But will he be ready? Will they be tested? Will he have had the value of what preseason games technically were designed to provide?
“He has had,” offensive coordinator Mike Groh said last week, “a tremendous camp.”
That’s what they say.
To contact Jack McCaffery, email him at jmccaffery@21stcenturymedia.com; follow him on Twitter @JackMcCaffery