The stands are nearly empty as the New Orleans Saints play the Baltimore Ravens in a pre-season game August 26, 2005 in New Orleans. (Photo by Al Messerschmidt/Getty Images)

The NFL Hall of Fame Game was a traveshamockery of professional football! So it’s a good thing that whole mix-up with the field happened and we didn’t have to sit through it!

No, no, I know: It’s a horrible look for a league that increasingly insists on nothing but the jewel-encrusted finest in everything to cancel a game because the field is too crappy to play on. It’s gobsmacking that the Hall of Fame’s leadership — which relies on the revenue from this game to keep their facility open — made a series of groundskeeping blunders that led to mass refunds.

Further, not since FedEx Field ate RGIII’s career has it been so obvious that the NFL has a major field-quality problem — one they’re only just starting to look into.

NFL Hall of Fame Game
CANTON, OH – AUGUST 07: Crews work on the field prior to the NFL Hall of Fame Game between the Green Bay Packers and Indianapolis Colts at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium on August 7, 2016 in Canton, Ohio. The game was cancelled due to poor field conditions. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images)

 

But the feeling flooding through many football fans and media members wasn’t fear for the players’ safety, or anger at the league. It was relief: We won’t have to watch this and pretend we care. Time for some guilt-free Olympics!

It’s no secret that preseason football isn’t a compelling TV product. Starters sleepwalking through vanilla gameplans for a series or two followed by camp bodies trying to make an impression can’t top the limitless entertainment options most Americans have at their fingertips — let alone sell out stadiums at full ticket prices.

The NFL knows it, too. They’ve been floating a smaller preseason schedule (and expanded regular-season slate) for years, but it seems no closer to happening now than ever. Why?

Because teams need preseason games.

They need rookies getting reps. They need to shake out position battles. They need to test rehabbed players with live contact. They need to cut their camp roster almost in half. In order to deliver the compelling product to which we’re all so hopelessly addicted, NFL teams need at least this much preseason football.

They need to have ones vs. ones, and twos vs. twos, and the second-team quarterback working behind the first-team offensive line. They need to play a level of football to which only the most diehard fans will stoop. Moreover, the players sacrificing everything to achieve their dreams need every opportunity they can get:

Usually, football decisions and money decisions go hand-in-hand: More football means more money. Better football means more money. More money means better football, or at least a better football-watching experience. But this is a case where the owners’ interests — making as much money as possible — are in direct opposition to the interests of the game.

They can’t just get rid of the Hall of Fame Game, as Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio proposed, because that’s how the Hall of Fame stays open.

Similarly, they can’t just cut down to three or two preseason games, because even a half-full NFL stadium and local-only TV rights is a hefty chunk of change for individual owners. Simply forfeiting that money is a non-starter.

The most obvious solution, trading one or two preseason games for regular-season games, doesn’t work for a league touting player safety as its top priority — and the NFLPA has more than made its position clear on expanding the regular season schedule. Any concession made by the players there would likely come with significant quid pro quos from the league.

MIAMI GARDENS, FL - AUGUST 29: Miami Dolphins fans watch a preseason game against the Atlanta Falcons at Sun Life Stadium on August 29, 2015 in Miami Gardens, Florida.  (Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)
MIAMI GARDENS, FL – AUGUST 29: Miami Dolphins fans watch a preseason game against the Atlanta Falcons at Sun Life Stadium on August 29, 2015 in Miami Gardens, Florida. (Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)

The NFL could ease the pressure on teams and players trying to make final cuts by expanding the active roster. In today’s highly specialized game of constant substitutions, with no extant spring league or D-league where players can develop, expanded rosters make plenty of sense. But again, even adding 10 players at the league minimum would mean $5 million more per year in cash outlay, and $160 million fewer salary-cap dollars to go around for the players already on the payroll.

Failing that, the league could bankroll a new developmental league that would provide a soft, team-rights-protected landing spot for promising players robbed of a chance to showcase their skill. Managed correctly, it could even help replace the revenue lost by cutting a couple of preseason games.

But it’s tough to see the NFL setting up a spring league, implementing a seamless roster-management system and marketing it well when they can’t even make sure a game they had 12 months to prepare for has a playable field.

In the end, there are no easy answers for the NFL’s preseason problem. Everyone with a vested interest hates the status quo but the stakeholders are pulling in opposite directions. A solution would have to protect player safety, provide more value to fans, provide game opportunities for tryout players and maintain (if not increase) generated revenue.

Still, if Roger Goodell can’t come up with a solution, it’s fair to wonder why the owners are paying him $34.1 million a year.

About Ty Schalter

Ty Schalter is thrilled to be part of The Comeback. A member of the Pro Football Writers of America, Ty also works as an NFL columnist for Bleacher Report and VICE Sports, and regular host for Sirius XM’s Bleacher Report Radio. In another life, he was an IT cubicle drone with a pretentious Detroit Lions blog.