Is Preseason Hype Really “Bogus?”
April 10th, 2014
The Buccaneers open their 2014 preseason in Jacksonville. And even if the new version of Lovieball and its mysterious offense is squaring up against a Johnny Football-led Jaguars team before a sold out crowd, there’s no way to call that an intriguing matchup.
That’s the order from the Custodian of Canton, the only local Hall of Fame voter, Tampa Tribune writer eye-RAH! Kaufman.
Kaufman, via Twitter, cut right to the meat of his distaste for preseason hype with precision, much like his no-nonsense serves on tennis courts across the Bay area. He said anyone hyping a preseason game is all but a snake oil salesman.
ikaufmanTBO – Any story that touts an NFL preseason matchup as intriguing is bogus. Exhibition games are simply glorified scrimmages — at full price
Now Joe must quibble with Kaufman here. Yes, preseason games are glorified scrimmages. Absolutely. But please don’t tell Joe there’s no intrigue. There is. It’s why legions of hardcore fans pay attention. More often than not there are multiple storylines of legitimate interest.
Off the top of Joe’s head, Joe would be intrigued to see Carl Nicks square off against Roy Miller in the preseason opener. Nicks absolutely manhandled Miller like a rag doll a few years ago, so that might be a nice barometer to use, assuming the human armoire can get on the field. If Nicks is hurt, then Joe will take his intrigue example to the Bucs’ juiced up defensive line and what they can do rushing only four guys against a bad Jacksonville O-line. The list goes on. Last year, Josh Freeman’s lack of reps in preseason was a huge story, and possibly a costly one for the Bucs.
As for the full-price nature of preseason games, Joe’s yet to see an NFL team hold a gun to anyone’s head to buy tickets. If the NFL cut the preseason schedule or teams charged less for those games, then inevitably prices would increase for regular season games. Owners will get their money one way or the other, so Joe really doesn’t care about preseason ticket prices.
The Bills, when the Bucs play there in preseason, will be hosting their annual Kids’ Day, when youth tickets are $15 and there are all kinds of kids events at the stadium before the game. Again, Joe doesn’t care about ticket prices, but there are teams adding value to their preseason.
Joe just wanted to take a stand for the preseason. Yeah, starters only play a little, but Joe knows there’s real excitement and intrigue in the hours leading up to some of the preseason kickoffs. And the opening look at the summer-sweaty cheerleaders is good enough for Joe.
April 10th, 2014 at 5:50 pm
I’m excited about preseason games for 2 reasons. 1 – it’s football, 2 – the regular season is just around the corner.
April 10th, 2014 at 6:46 pm
The thing I like the most about preseason is I’m usually golfing when it’s going on.
April 10th, 2014 at 6:47 pm
I typically don’t watch any of the preseason. If I do at all, it’s only the first quarter of the third game.
April 10th, 2014 at 7:00 pm
I watch all of it! I like to see all the rookies and guy’s fighting for a job,plus it’s the depth and development of our team. but that’s me
April 10th, 2014 at 7:09 pm
Bills game is Kids Day? I have to tell all the Northeast Bucs fans not to show up in mattress costumes!! That would kill the family atmosphere.
April 10th, 2014 at 7:10 pm
I enjoy watching some of the games….more when the starters and number twos are in. As for Jacksonville…if they can get some offense going I think that new head coach from Seattle may get things going over there. Too bad those helmets look so bad.
April 10th, 2014 at 7:11 pm
I watch all the Preseason Games for the Bucs. It doesn’t matter if I am watching the third string even. It helps me see how good our backups are going to be and with the many injuries last year, backups were extremely important. The way the head coach conducts the Preseason for his team tells you a lot. When I saw that Glennon was getting most of the snaps in last Preseason and our Veteran QB who had a 75% completion rate in the Preseason in 2012, told me quickly that Schiano was lying when he said the best players would play. No–Schiano’s Pets would get the starting jobs. In a fair competition Glennon would have been the third string QB. I watched the third Preseason game closely to see if Goode was able to cover passes as I thought he could (since I did not believe that Foster could) and saw Goode get a pick six and knock down another pass and he was the Most Valuable Player in that game–and I saw Schiano cut him because he did not want him to beat out Foster at MLB. Schiano wanted to control everything. I saw how the Coach did not give enough reps to his first string to get ready for the season, and then I knew Schiano was a loser and said in PR he would lose his first four games–which he did! For me Preseason tells me a lot.
April 10th, 2014 at 7:25 pm
The only thing that always bothered me was the amount of season ending injuries before they even play a meaningful game. Way to much talent have had their careers derailed before it really even counted. It would be nice to have the whole team healthy for the first regular season game when it counted. Nothing worse than having players on IR to start the season because they got hurt in a glorified scrimmage.
April 10th, 2014 at 7:26 pm
Who’s the cheerleader in the photo on top of this story?
April 10th, 2014 at 7:37 pm
@ stratobuc
Rachel’s replacement….and Joe’s newest obsession.
April 10th, 2014 at 7:42 pm
I love preseason, except that I hate seeing starters actually play them because you have newbies playing in ways that cause injuries.
But I like watching to see the young talent.
April 10th, 2014 at 8:03 pm
I watch the preseason Bucs games if they are on TV, otherwise read about them on this site from now on.
April 10th, 2014 at 8:06 pm
Anyone who likes preseason obviously is not a season ticket holder and doesn’t have to pay for that crap.
April 10th, 2014 at 8:18 pm
I agree with Ira. They need to play some “practice” games and get a look at rookies and competition at various positions, but there’s nothing intriguing except an occasional break out performance from a low round draft pick or un-drafted rookie free agent. It’s criminal that teams charge anything more than half the price of a regular game for these games.
April 10th, 2014 at 8:22 pm
True bucs fans itch for any football games preseason or not . From start to finish . Anyone else is a wannabe . How else do you learn about the depth . That’s why I love joebucsfan.com all bucs all day period . And to all the sissy a$$ bashers. Get bent
April 10th, 2014 at 8:32 pm
Joes, please use photos of that cheerleader on all stories. No matter who the article is about. In fact, just use cheerleader photos on all stories. (Don’t tell my wife.)
April 10th, 2014 at 9:34 pm
Just watched the segment on top 100 players of all time. Lee Roy Selmon and Derrick Brooks was on the first ten to come off a hundred. Great story reminded me of what true Bucs are all about. Put a tear in my eye remembering the year of the superbowl and when we were so dominant. I remember just knowing it was there year. I was still in high school playing ball myself. That team inspired me to leave nothing on the field. I still have paper articles from that year. Good times. Im ready for our Bucs to be back to the glory days and to just be destroyers. Go Bucs! We need more men like you Mr. Brooks.
April 10th, 2014 at 9:35 pm
Last preseason was like watching paint dry.
April 10th, 2014 at 9:42 pm
Joes, please use photos of that cheerleader on all stories. No matter who the article is about. In fact, just use cheerleader photos on all stories. (Don’t tell my wife.)
🙂
April 10th, 2014 at 10:12 pm
I stream all the games on my big plasma from nfl.com preseason package. Gets me fired up to see my team coming together and familiarize myself with the new players. Love it! Who cares if nobody shows up at the stadium?
April 10th, 2014 at 10:18 pm
Joe,
In your About Joe page. Second to last paragraph, last sentence Im copying and pasting below. Please notice the typo with the words has transported… Its anal but hey its your job to be anal and mine too:
And Joe runs the wildly successful No Excuses Tour to Tropicana Field, which thas ransported more than 1,000 Tampa-area baseball fans to Rays games in 2012.
April 10th, 2014 at 10:25 pm
This preseason it will take all 4 quarters of all 4 games to figure out who the starters on the offense will be!
April 10th, 2014 at 11:24 pm
Thanks Cmurda.
April 10th, 2014 at 11:30 pm
you have to watch preseason games its foreplay.
April 11th, 2014 at 12:04 am
“Its anal but hey its your job to be anal and mine too:”
this is ironical!
April 11th, 2014 at 1:22 am
lurker Says:
April 11th, 2014 at 12:04 am
“Its anal but hey its your job to be anal and mine too:”
this is ironical!
Yeah, whoa. After seeing that in print, I retract my statement. Rachel Watson, Rachel Watson, Rachel Watson. Ahh, there we go.
April 11th, 2014 at 1:55 am
I also meant the “its” instead of it’s…twice, even. especially considering you were helping correct the joes.
April 11th, 2014 at 2:12 am
Although preseason games are not as good as regular season, I still watch some of them on TV.
April 11th, 2014 at 8:09 am
I’m watching the pre-season to see Mike “19 TDs to 9 INTs in Schiano’s Mickey Mouse offense” Glennon win the starting job away from Josh “Only threw more TDs than INTs once in his 11-year career” McCown.
April 11th, 2014 at 1:25 pm
As stated above preseason gives you a chance to familiarize yourself with the whole roster, and the regular season is close enough that you can smell it.
It’s a beautiful thing.
April 11th, 2014 at 2:10 pm
If by the time preseason rolls around you’re not pacing back and forth, scratching your arms and neck like a crackhead, you are not a Bucs fan.
I usually don’t attend preseason games because of the ticket price but do catch the games on TV. In a way it’s masochistic.
TAMPA-
-BAY!
TAMPA-
-BAY!
When’s the draft again?!
April 11th, 2014 at 2:53 pm
Lurker,
I was helping correct Joes because this is an about column on his page. That was just for his sake. As far as apostrophes, Im too lazy to throw those in.
April 12th, 2014 at 2:02 pm
I like to see what we got. We need to see players other than the confirmed starters. But I too dread seeing a player go down in the pre-season.
April 12th, 2014 at 2:03 pm
BTW. Do we not have the best looking cheerleaders in the league?