You’ve had a rough week, America.
I don’t need to tell you why, but I guess the name “Colin Kaepernick” included in this story might lead more people to find it on the internet, so, yeah, his decision to not to stand for your national anthem really has made it a rugged few days.
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This isn’t about that controversy, though. This is about the venue that led to that commotion and, more to the point, the injuries suffered by Dallas quarterback Tony Romo, Baltimore tight end Benjamin Watson, Indianapolis guard Jack Mewhort and Pittsburgh tackle Marcus Gilbert. The protests and the injuries all occurred during NFL exhibition games. And you, America, are to blame for all of it.
You love NFL exhibition games so damn much that your decision to sit and watch the Dolphins and Falcons exhibit themselves in a game that did not count — those two teams accounted for 14 victories and 18 defeats last year — made NBC the No. 1-rated network in prime time last Thursday.
You love NFL exhibition games so damn much that eight of the top 10 sports events in terms of social media engagement last week were preseason football games. Heck, that even included the Browns and Buccaneers, who accounted for nine victories and 23 defeats last year.
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Every year, we hear sportswriters and analysts complain about the absurdity of the NFL exhibition process. This year, we even saw a head coach get involved, when the Ravens' John Harbaugh argued for a drastic change in the number of exhibitions. Asked how many he would prefer, Harbaugh said, “None.”
The problem with that position is this: Exhibition games make money.
Let’s use the Steelers as an example. Their home stadium, Heinz Field, seats 68,400. They sell a vast majority of those seats on a season-ticket basis. For the sake of an easier math problem, let’s put the number at 60,000. Those regular customers purchase not only the eight regular-season games, but also whatever exhibitions are on the schedule. This year, those included games against Detroit and Philadelphia.
The average ticket price for a Steelers game last season was $83.97, according to Statista.com. At that figure, the gate for an exhibition game is in excess of $5 million. And the cost to offset that revenue, which includes neither concessions nor broadcast licensing? Not a lot. Players' salaries are paid only for their regular-season participation. So it’s not quite pure profit for the NFL owners, but it’s as close as they’ll ever come.
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It’s not easy to walk away from that.
In a sense, it costs owners when a prominent player is injured and misses games for an extended period; however, it can only cost so much because there’s a hard salary cap. And if a player gets hurt in the first game that counts as opposed to the penultimate game that doesn’t, does it make that much of a difference? Rhetorically, there’s more impact to complain a player was hurt in a meaningless game, but consider the Steelers’ Maurkice Pouncey. He missed all 16 regular-season games last year because of a preseason injury; he missed 15 games in 2013 after getting hurt in Week 1.
The league’s coaches are demonstrating their collective belief in the cost/benefit of exhibitions by how they are using prominent players. Andrew Luck, for instance, did not appear in either of the Colts’ first two games. And still you watch, America.
Whether it’s your drive to find the next Arian Foster for your fantasy team, the lack of engaging late-August TV options — I get it: How much "American Ninja Warrior" can anyone watch? — or simply your continued addiction to the National Football League, you watch and some of you show up at the stadium and exhibition football continues as it has for nearly 40 years.
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And so guys like Romo are going to get hurt in games that don’t matter.
But if you need a defense for your complicity in this, America, I have the ideal response. If anybody wags a finger in your direction regarding your involvement in the Romo deal, remind them Minnesota’s Teddy Bridgewater went down with a serious injury in practice. Nobody hit him. They can’t pin that one on you.
