National Football League exhibition season

The National Football League exhibition season refers to the NFL's pre-season games before the NFL regular season starts. Starting with the featured Pro Football Hall of Fame game in early August, five weekends of exhibition games are currently played in the NFL. The start of the exhibition season is intrinsically tied to the last week of Training camp.

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 Hall of Fame game is played first in front of a national audience, alone on the first weekend. It does not count toward the normal allotment of four games, therefore the two teams playing in that contest (one AFC and one NFC) each play a total of five exhibition 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 in order to avoid injury.

History

For several years through 1977, the NFL season consisted of 14 regular season games and six exhibition games. Starting in 1978, the regular season was expanded to 16 games, and the exhibition season was cut from six to four games.

From 1999-2001, when the league consisted of an uneven 31 teams, some additional preseason games (usually 2 or 3) were played over Hall of Fame weekend. In order to account for the uneven number of teams, each team was required to have a one bye week during the preseason. Most teams held their bye week in Hall of Fame weekend, while the others utilized them somewhere else during the preseason. This was abandoned after the Houston Texans were added to the league in 2002, giving the league an even 32 teams.

The preseason 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.

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.

International games

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.

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. When airing the local broadcasters' games, NFL Network will split the footage between each team's home market by half, with the home team having the first half and the visiting team having the second half. For instance, if the Cleveland Browns were playing the Detroit Lions in Cleveland, NFL Network would air the Browns' local coverage in the first half (in this case, WKYC-TV), and then air the second half coverage from the Lions local broadcaster, WWJ-TV.

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.

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. (See below)
*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 and encouraged, since regular season matchups between interconference teams are infrequent (interconference teams play each other only once every four years during the regular season). These sorts of games allow teams to travel to particular markets more frequently than normal, and represent "fresh" matchups.
*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).
*Along with general in-state rivalries, some long-established "Governor's Cups" are played annually.
**Texas - Dallas vs. Houston
**Missouri - Kansas City vs. St. Louis
*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 committee), featuring one AFC team and one NFC team. Its matchup is announced well in advance, around the time of the Super Bowl, when the Hall of Fame inductees are announced. Under some circumstances, the matchup is planned well into the future. For example, the Buccaneers played the Steelers in the 1998 Hall of Fame Game, a matchup that had been announced in 1983. In recent times, if there has been an expansion team added to the league, that team will be invited to play in the Hall of Fame game (Carolina, Jacksonville, the new Cleveland Browns, and Houston all played in their expansion seasons in 1995, 1995, 1999, and 2002 respectively).

Prior to the 1970 AFL/NFL merger it was common for teams to play each other twice in the same pre-season. The most recent occurrence was in 1992 when Dallas and Houston played on August 1 in Tokyo then again on August 15 in Dallas.

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.

chedule

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.

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." [cite court|litigants=Angelo F. Coniglio v. Highwood Services, Inc.|vol=495|reporter=F.2d|opinion=1286|court=2d Cir.|date=1974-04-17|url=https://www.fastcase.com/Yahoo/Start.aspx?C=bdf29c81ec9f2108828af262e1c3150332e37f2b1a6ed523&D=9cc57650acff7121c729167adc6a2328964128d066733801&AffiliateConst=Yahoo]

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. 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. [cite web|url=http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/s_466413.html|title=Exhibition overkill|author=Starkey, Joe|publisher=Pittsburgh Tribune-Review|date=2006-08-17|accessdate=2006-11-17]

Future

In 2008, NFL comissioner Roger Goodell raised the possibility of shortening the preseason, in favor of lengthening the regular season. By 2010, it is possible the league may switch to three preseason games (down from 4) and a 17-game regular season (up from 16).

Reasons cited were solutions to future labor concerns about revenue, and the overall dissatisfaction of the preseason among teams and fans. Also since the NFL is now widely considered a competetive year-round business, veteran players normally train and condition year round, and do not need the extensive preseason to get back into playing shape after the offseason.

References