Om Field: Preseason Football is a Love/Hate Relationship

[Om]

August 5, 2010

I love preseason.

And I hate it.

I love seeing my team storm the field in full battle gear for the first time in eight long months, pouring through the smoke and thundering bass grooves and prehistoric roar of a well-lubricated partisan crowd.

I hate being reminded, around midway through the second quarter, that I don't know who a lot of the guys wearing those colors with unfamiliar numbers are ... and that a lot of them won't be around in a month so how well or badly they do out there really doesn't matter.

I love that a week from tomorrow on Friday the 13th (hmm), I will get to witness the beginning of A New Era—Mike Shanahan, Donovan McNabb, Trent Williams, the 3-4 defense.

I hate that I really won't. The New Era won't truly begin until Septermber 12 when the Dallas Cowboys come to town.

I love that I will get my first taste; my first peek at what this new Redskins team "looks like" in action.

I hate that while I am finally getting that peek, how they play—good, bad or indifferent—may or may not have anything to do with how they look come September 12.

I love that we will have actual football to talk about again. Was it a bad pass or did the receiver run a lazy route? Did the rookie left tackle get smoked inside by the defensive end or did the guard blow his assignment, pulling right instead of taking the away the inside rush lane? Did the corner get toasted one-on-one on a simple fly route or did the safety bite on an average look-off by the quarterback and blow his deep coverage?

I hate that many will treat each and every one of those actual football things as sure-fire Portents of Things To Come. That the player in question is either a can't-miss Pro Bowler or simply can't play. That the new system is either money or fatally flawed. That the New Era is either headed for Dynasty or the new regime will be looking for work come January...


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[Jimbo]

Nicely done, Brother Om. Once again, you've captured the way most of us feel about preseason. I've found that the older I get, the less I try to judge preseason and the more I try to just enjoy it so this sentence pretty much sums it up for me: "It's a pure pigskin picnic, a chance to watch a little game-type action and form some first-blush impressions of the new season's team."

 

[Om]

Merci.

For the record, this one is honorary_hog's fault. This started as a simple reply to his thread about what you're looking for in preseason. Before I knew it I was pontificatin' ... and no good pontification shall go unblogged at this time of year.

 

[Jimbo]

... and no good pontification shall go unblogged at this time of year.

We wouldn't have it any other way.

 

[authentic]

good write-up. Sums up exactly how i feel about preseason. :

 

[servumtuum]

I'll second Jimbo on this, brother Om, you have a knack for saying the things that I believe a lot of us feel but are afraid to mention publicly. I try to look at the pre-season as an extension of TC, but the first time we score on a McNabb pass, or make a tackle behind the line of scrimmage, or, dear God sack Edwards?!?-my adrenalin level is gonna spike and there's not a damn thing I can do to stop it.

As you said, such is the personal hell we put ourselves during the pre-season.

And, like you, I wouldn't have it any other way.

 

[LoyalSkinsFan]

I love that you are writing more and more as the preseason comes upon us.

I hate that I find it's still not quite enough......

Keep it coming, big O. Gives me something to think about other than work, money and my lack of sleep.

Can't believe it's nearly game time.....

 

[China]

Well, I'll say this: I love that training camp is here signalling that real football is right around the corner. I hate that there is so little news of worth to report or discuss that 10 of the first 21 threads in this forum are about Haynesworth.