The start of the National Football League season is less than two weeks away. It opens on a Wednesday this season when the defending Super Bowl Champions Seattle Seahawks host the team they beat in Super Bowl LX last February, the New England Patriots.
If it feels like the preseason just started and we already have only one more full week of preseason games after this weekend, it feels that way because it is.
When I joined the Oakland Raiders in 1973, the preseason consisted of six exhibition games and training camp was at least seven full weeks. The Raiders, and all 25 other NFL teams, routinely held two-a-day workouts in full pads.
Seems like a lot?
Well, it would today with athletes who play half as many preseason games and have but 16 full pad practices allowed during the duration of their summer training camp which can be as brief as four weeks.
Were six preseason games too many? Was two full pad practices five days a week too much work?