00:00This is the problem that I have with the current state of the NFL, Craig, because to sit there
00:06and think that what we have seen in the month of September is going to resemble what teams
00:12are by the time we get to the end of October is foolish.
00:17Do not, I don't care if they didn't win a game.
00:20Do not think that what you saw from Tampa for the first three weeks, four weeks, is
00:25going to resemble what they are going to be by the time November rolls around.
00:30We see it every year that September with the lack of preseason, the lack of practice, the
00:37lack of content, you know, for the most part, the games that most teams have been playing
00:43here in the month of September, Craig, should have been the preseason, should have been, and
00:47then they hit the ground running.
00:49But now we get four weeks every year in the NFL where we can't, we're scratching our
00:55head with some teams because they don't actually figure it out until we get to October, and
01:00then they're a totally different team by the time we get to November.
01:04It happens every year, and I blame this whole concept that we do not need to practice.
01:09We can just, we can emulate it in group practices and team, you know, co-ed team, yay, let's take
01:17on the Patriots with t-shirts, and no, it's every year we see it, the product is terrible
01:22in a month of September.
01:23But what is the answer?
01:24But what is the answer?
01:25What is the answer?
01:26Joe, you're right, okay?
01:27I'm not saying you're wrong, but you're right.
01:29But what is the answer?
01:31We have to be fair with this because the, I'll tell you what the answer is not going back
01:35and playing four preseason games because then no players are healthy for the regular season
01:39and all the money that's being spent on the product is crap.
01:42I understand that.
01:43That's the problem.
01:44I understand that, but you can't, you can't, I mean, listen, with all due respect, you can't
01:50possibly think that more players are going to be healthy after playing the preseason.
01:54I cannot buy that.
01:55I absolutely do.
01:56I can't buy that.
01:57I can't buy that.
01:57I do.
01:58And here's why I do, Craig.
01:59It's very simple, okay?
02:00The types of injuries that we are seeing are injuries that are only happening because
02:08of the speed of the game and the physicality of the game, which bodies are not ready for.
02:13Why?
02:14Because they didn't hit anybody during the preseason.
02:17You don't need to play four preseason games, but the starters better play enough reps during
02:23the preseason to get themselves ready for the, you can't just turn it on and turn it off
02:29in the NFL level here where we're in pads and shorts and everything.
02:33We're not playing in this game.
02:35We're not playing in that.
02:36And okay, great.
02:37So now we got hamstrings, soft tissue injuries everywhere.
02:41Why?
02:42Because they thought they could just flip a switch and turn it on, Craig.
02:45And it's not working.
02:46It's just not working.
02:48Yeah, no, look, I, again, I respectfully disagree.
02:51I think that the play itself is being hurt.
02:54Yes.
02:54I think personally, the reason why they've done away with the preseason and done away
02:59with playing the players in the preseason, because the last few years we started to get
03:03an inordinate amount of injuries during the preseason.
03:07And I think that's why they did it in the end.
03:09And the best thing for everyone, as bad as it is for the players, honestly, at this point,
03:13and the fans, the only, look, I think the NFL drives the bus.
03:18I think it's great.
03:19I'm with you and everyone else every Sunday watching, other than when the Marlins are playing,
03:24that's what I'm doing.
03:25Okay.
03:25It is one of my favorite things to do is watch football on Saturday and, or one game or two,
03:29and then watch football on Sunday.
03:31But I don't think the preseason can survive.
03:35I, something else has to happen.
03:37And you can't even, I mean, the shame of this whole thing is that I know a lot of season
03:42ticket holders for the dolphins, how they still charge Joe, the regular season prices
03:46for those games in the preseason.
03:48It's crazy.
03:49No one even goes to the games.
03:50So it's still a money-making event that the NFL has yet to figure out how to still make that
03:57money without relinquishing those games.
03:59That that's it.
04:00That's what's left.
04:01So I don't know what the answer is.
04:03Again, maybe, maybe what you're saying is accurate.
04:06Maybe at the end of the season, there'll be a study that showed because of that, more
04:11injuries were caused.
04:11I'm not saying it's not, I personally don't believe that.
04:14And I don't think we're ever going back to having a preseason because I think teams would
04:18be petrified of playing their guys then and losing them before the year starts.
04:23What happens, Joe, when guys get hurt in the third week of September and miss the entire
04:30season?
04:30They miss three months.
04:31What happens when they get hurt the first week in August?
04:36They miss the whole season.
04:38No one's buying the tickets.
04:39The guys are hurt.
04:40Well, Chris, you and I grew up watching a lot of football and I don't ever remember Troy
04:45Aikman, Steve Young.
04:47I don't ever remember Dan Marino or the guys that played every preseason game.
04:54And all of a sudden we were so worried about, no, and they were going up against the other
05:00starters in the preseason.
05:01Nobody's saying the starters got to play four quarters.
05:05That's never what the, the preseason has always been terrible.
05:08Even going back, that's not the point.
05:10The point was conditioning and getting the starters ready to compete at the speed and level of
05:19the game.
05:20And NFL has done a poor job of that.
