Rams, Raiders best example why exhibition football doesn’t work

The Los Angeles Rams and the Oakland Raiders will play an exhibition game on Saturday that may best demonstrate why the preseason is pointless, except for the gate receipts.

The Los Angeles Rams and the Oakland Raiders will play one of the most inconsequential and utterly pointless football games that the league could possible schedule on Saturday afternoon. The result of an exhibition season that teams openly have a disdain for, and that fans clearly see through.

Let’s be honest, outside of saying an NFL game is on TV, it’s the kind of football that is best defined by a yawn.

Neither head coach is particularly thrilled. Sean McVay has voiced an opinion about it, and Jon Gruden has as well. Both teams will face each other again in less than a month, when they help open the Monday Night Football schedule for ESPN in a doubleheader.

Can I get an ugh!

As for compelling stories, there are few. The Sean Mannion story is interesting given he’s the backup quarterback to Jared Goff, which means fans will watch for him to only fail less, or fail completely.

How’s that for compelling football?

But that’s a rival storyline if you consider how both McVay and Gruden feel about the Saturday matchup of ho-hum.

Not exactly a ringing endorsement of exhibition football, which is my point.

Increasingly, the four weeks of preseason football has become a collective exercise of holding your breath and waiting for the regular season to begin.

Coaches hate it.
Players hate it.
Fans seem often ambivalent about it.

It’s four games to determine a depth chart because the starting jobs are mostly decided.

Couldn’t that be achieved in scrimmages with officials and paid admission?

Truth is like most things, preseason football is a money grab. I get it, and so does everyone else including coaches and players. Starters are often in anything but a uniform, and the long time practice of “dress rehearsal” games in Week 3 is clearly a thing of the past.

Few if anyone expect any starters for the Rams to play on Saturday making Week 2 of the NFL preseason a dud for Los Angeles fans, meaning Rams and Raiders is nothing more than a walk through with officials and a TV audience.

Or put another way, save the popcorn for September.