The first 2010 NFL pre-season game is in books. The Dallas Cowboys defeated the Cincinnati Bengals 16-7. Is it still not kosher to call it an exhibition game? The NFL doesn’t cotton to that designation.

The victories or defeats don’t count a lick in any standings and the first string players are protected from injury by limiting their participation.

If that doesn’t define an exhibition I don’t know what would do it for the NFL. They charge full boat for the tickets and expect fans to swallow it by trying to sell them on the novelty of watching their own version of HBO’s “Hard Knocks.”

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell told Mike Florio of profootballtalk.com last week that “The fans have made it incredibly clear that they don’t like preseason games.”

So Commish, does that mean you are encouraging the teams to adjust prices accordingly? Ah…no, not exactly. Goodell thinks they should just flip two of the four exhibitions into regular season games.

“So the idea of staying within the 20-game format and taking two preseason games and converting them to regular season games has a lot of appeal,” Goodell told Florio.

Apparently the players don’t think it has much appeal. At least that is the talk coming out of the NFL Players Association as they bulk up for the coning fight to the death over a new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).

Goodell as you would expect from such a smooth operator, thinks he has that covered too. “But you have to do it in a comprehensive fashion that is going to ensure that the game stays safe for our players,” The game’s the game Mr. Goodell. Players go down without hits to the head or illegal chop blocks.

Sunday night’s Hall of Fame game was interesting in short bursts for those that wanted to see the new Bengals’ receiving corps and if the Cowboy’s Roy Williams would actually catch a pass.

Hard core fans of each team and fantasy football stat heads might have stayed engaged longer if they knew the draft picks and were curious to see if they could predict who might make the 53-man game roster.

Aside from those potential benefits of staying engaged in the action, you got plenty of chances to relive some of the moments from the Pro Football Hall of Fame Induction ceremony the previous evening.

As a football crazy country, it was heartening to realize the real thing kicks off in a bit more than four weeks. But the real thing isn’t what we are fed in August.

If the NFL owners get what they want in the new CBA and earn more of the gross revenue than their current percentage, perhaps they’ll do the right thing. On this point, MLB’s got it right.

Call them exhibitions, play them at the site of the training camps if you can and get us ready for football when the W’s and L’s really count.

Used with permission of the author.

Paula Duffy is a national sports columnist for Examiner.com and the Huffington Post and regularly comments on sports/legal matters for radio affiliates of ESPN and Fox Sports. She founded the sports information site, Incidental Contact, is the author of a line of audio books designed for sports novices and in her spare time practices law in Los Angeles. 

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