Fix the preseason, and fix it now

Here are two plans to make the NFL exhibition schedule more sane

GREEN BAY, Wis. -- It's time. The NFL has to do something to stop the madness. I mean, how many more Michael Vicks are there going to be? How many more Chad Penningtons? Arguably the NFC's and AFC's preseason cover boys, respectively, Vick and Pennington were seemingly the most popular choices for NFL photo shoots the past couple of months.  Both were shot for possible Sports Illustrated covers during the past two weeks and both are now are gone for the next month or two (and probably more in Pennington's case) -- and for what purpose? For the idiotic farce that is preseason football, that's what.

Fans, I don't often give you advice, but I'm going to give you some right now. Walk to your nearest window that faces New York City. Open it. And scream: "I'm mad as hell about these stupid exhibition games, and I'm not gonna take it anymore!"

There is no easy solution to the problem that is the NFL preseason, but I'm going to propose one possibility. I do it because there is one thing about the exhibition campaign that I know: It's preposterous to take tremendously in-shape football players on July 20, have them practice six to 10 times a week for six weeks, make them play four meaningless football games -- and then think those players are going to come out of the summer healthy and ready to play a great regular season. I don't understand why reasonably intelligent coaches and owners haven't seen the error of their ways and stepped up to do something about this.

(Well, it has to do with money, and anything that has to do with money makes smart men do dumb things. This is one of those situations.)

Vick's out for the first third of the season because of a stupid play in a game that had nothing to do with whether the Falcons will be playing in January -- but now may have everything to do with whether they reach the postseason. The Falcons QB will wear a cast on his broken tibia for the next six weeks. One of Arizona's most valuable players, defensive end Kyle Vanden Bosch, is out for the year with a torn ACL. Giants tight end Jeremy Shockey, who is only the biggest weapon at his position in the NFL, broke a rib and doesn't know if he'll be the same guy when the season starts. You usually aren't with a busted rib. All of this happened within 27 hours during Week 3 of the NFL preseason.

Week 4 brought more carnage. Pennington, who last year had one of the best rookie seasons of any quarterback ever, was leaving the pocket against the Giants Saturday night and got mugged. Just before he hit the turf while being tackled, he put his left hand down to cushion the fall and shattered his left wrist; seven pins were inserted during surgery Saturday night, and Pennington will be lost for at least three months. San Francisco's Eric Johnson, one of the league's 10 best tight ends,  cracked his collarbone Saturday night and will be out for at least a month. That same evening in Buffalo, Rams safety Kim Herring broke his forearm while playing on kickoff coverage. The injury (which will keep Herring out for two months) further depletes a secondary already reeling from the 10-week loss of Jason Sehorn, who injured his foot in training camp. Friday night, the Eagles lost rookie Jamaal Greene, who was making a surprise run at a spot in Philly's defensive-line rotation, to a broken leg, and came within an oddly contorted fall of losing starting wideout James Thrash for the year; he suffered a bruised neck.

"The real shame of the preseason," new Detroit coach Steve Mariucci told me a few days ago, "is that you start the summer fresh. Guys are in the best shape they'll be in all year. Then you go out and get banged up. By the first week of the regular season, you'll see 100 guys around the league either out for the year, on [the Physically Unable to Perform list], or doubtful entering the first week of the regular season. It's awful."

Mariucci and I have ideas how to salve this wound.

THE KING PLAN: Each team plays two preseason games, one home and one road contest, with the starters on each side mandated to play no more than the first quarter of each. In addition, each team plays one live scrimmage game (with the officials, rules and clock all working) against a regional rival using the bottom 55 to 60 players -- depending on how many roster exemptions it has for NFL Europe players -- on its roster. In other words, teams would be leaving their 25 top players out of harm's way for all but two live quarters of the preseason. The backups and rookies would get a full 60-minute test against similar players from other teams in the scrimmage, and they'd play the final three quarters of the two exhibitions.

The weakness of this plan, obviously, is that the veterans would enter Week 1 of the regular season with a bare minimum of real-bullets-flying game conditioning. I think it's a necessary evil. I ask you: Would you rather have your starting 22 intact on Sept. 7, and wonder if they'll be fresh early in the fourth quarter of the opener, or would you rather continue taking the same risk that could cost your team its starting quarterback, or one of its other valuable players?

Of course, there's no guarantee that starters won't get hurt in their two-quarter exposure, or during camp. What I'm proposing is to severely cut down the risk of that happening. Instead of playing six or seven summer quarters, starters would play two.

"Interesting," Ravens minority owner Steve Bisciotti the other day when I ran my suggestions by him, and he wasn't patronizing me.

If you think it's right, Steve, fight for it. Preseason money from TV -- and charging fans for the meaningless games -- is part of the bottom line for owners. They're used to it. They'd rather put a phony product on the field -- as the Jets and Bucs did in Tokyo three weeks ago, with Warren Sapp playing three downs, and as the Cardinals did two weeks ago, when Emmitt Smith was on the field for three snaps -- and let ESPN sell it as a real game, so it can be part of a profitable network package. My guess is teams would lose $3 million, on average, by cutting out two of the preseason contests, even if they figured out some way to make money by TVing the scrimmages in hungry markets like Cleveland and Dallas. But I ask you: Would Falcons owner Arthur Blank trade $3 million right now in exchange for having Mike Vick on the field against Dallas Sept. 7? You bet your empty preseason seats he would.

And every owner should look at Blank today and say: There but for the grace of God goes me. This year it's Mike Vick. It could be my stud next year. Or next week. I mean, how sick is Jets owner Woody Johnson right now?

THE MARIUCCI PLAN. Similar in many aspects to the King Plan. "I say three games," Mariucci said. "One home, one road, and one in a place you want to bring NFL football to. You'd have one of those every other year, and in the other year you'd go on the road and play as the opponent for another team at the site they choose. Like for us, we could go to Lansing, or Ann Arbor, or maybe even Toronto, to sell the game to people who might not normally have a chance to see it. Spread the wealth." The Lions coach would mandate no fixed time for vets to play.

Mariucci is adamant that the preseason schedule should be adjusted. I remember talking to him during summers past, when he was coaching the Niners and trying to figure a way to make exhibition games not a total charade, attempting to orchestrate a national TV game in which the network would want to see Jeff Garcia and Terrell Owens and Bryant Young -- but he'd still yank them after five plays. "We had a fifth game a couple of times, and that's really awful, both because of the game and because of the extra 10 practices it meant you'd have," he said.

That gets to the heart of the other problem a long and scrimmage-filled training camp presents. It can wreak havoc on your salary cap. Say you lose three players to relatively serious injuries in the preseason. One is an average starter with a torn ACL. Out for the year. A guy who can't play now costs you, say, $1.8 million against your salary cap this year. You sign an experienced free-agent veteran to replace him, at a cap cost of $800,000. Then you lose two players who wouldn't have made your team. One fractures a fibula, and the team doc tells you -- and his agent -- that he'll be out for two months. The other is out for the year and needs shoulder surgery.

Say they were both scheduled to make $225,000. You have to pay the shoulder guy $225,000 on the cap, plus all medical expenses. You waive the fibula guy, but you still have to pay him eight-seventeenths (eight game checks, because that's how long it would take him to get healthy) of his salary, which comes out to $105,882. Now there's $1.13 million on the cap (for the veteran starter, the shoulder guy and the fibula guy) because players got hurt in the summer. General managers stay up nights thinking of those figures, let me tell you.

I still can't believe the Bucs reported to camp 52 days before their opener, will play a fifth exhibition game on Thursday, and haven't had a key guy injured. Part of me credits Jon Gruden for practicing smart. Part of me says: Dumb luck, Jon. The injury gods say your time is coming. Every coach should tell his GM and his owner before the league meetings next year: Stop the madness. The preseason must get fixed, and fixed now.

... Baltimore linebackers coach and Hall of Famer Mike Singletary, who is now mentoring Ray Lewis and friends, and who, perhaps more impressive still, made a huge lifestyle change last spring when he moved his wife, Kim, and family (they are raising seven children, ages 5 to 17) from Chicago to Baltimore:

MMQB: How did you get into coaching?

Singletary: Well, football has always been a strong part of my life, obviously. When I stopped playing [in 1992], I asked some friends of mine who were coaches how they managed to balance their home life and coaching. They all said, 'I've got a great wife.' So did I, but we were going to have a big family, and I didn't want to leave Kim at home with the kids all day while I coached. I know how many hours are involved with the profession. I wanted to be sure my family came first. So I did other things. [Motivational speaking, mostly.] Then the Baylor head-coaching job came up last winter, and an alum called me to see if I was interested. It got my wife and I thinking. Coaching hadn't left me. Kim said to me, 'Mike, I think we should be in coaching.'

MMQB: "We?" Wow. What a wife.

Singletary: Although things didn't work out with Baylor, the offer reignited my passion for football. And then other chances to get back into the sport came up last winter ... I received calls from Matt Millen in Detroit, Bill Walsh in San Francisco, and I even talked to Miami of Ohio about its defensive coordinator job. And there was talk about going to Cincinnati with Marvin Lewis. In the middle of that, Brian Billick called and had me come in. He had my wife visit as well -- she was at a retreat in San Antonio and flew in -- and we ate at the Billicks' house. When we got back to the hotel that night, Kim said to me: 'Mike, this is it.' I started out wanting to be a head coach, and I still do, but I need to humble myself. I said to the Lord, 'Whatever you want me to do, I'll do.' This is what the Lord wanted me to do. And it's what I wanted to do. I believe you have to come to a truth about your life, and what your passion is. This, right now, is my passion.'

MMQB: What's it like working with Ray Lewis, who is a latter-day version of yourself?

Singletary: I always thought Ray was a wild guy who played the game the way it supposed to be played. I had great admiration for his game. Now that I'm coaching him, I've been pleasantly surprised by what a student of the game he is. He can improve, but he is everything a linebacker should strive to be.

There is something wonderful about Green Bay. Something pristine, something pure, something innocent.

Yesterday, before I boarded my return flight to New Jersey I saw a family with four kids -- two high school-aged girls, a boy who looked about 5 and a girl about 2 -- waiting to board the plane. One of the older girls wore a local high school track team's sweatshirt. The other had a CD player and headphones. Try as the little boy might, by flicking her ear or trying to steal the headphones, the latter girl refused to be annoyed. She smiled and laughed. When the family boarded the plane behind me, it was obvious that some, if not all, had never flown before. They giggled about what lay ahead. As they walked through first class and looked at their seats in coach, the headphoned girl said excitedly to her sister, neither with disappointment or joy: "The seats are smaller back there! Look!" The cynic would call this family people who hadn't flown before for whatever reason -- poor, poor rubes. I would call them unspoiled and interested in a new adventure.

Two other Green Bayisms:

1. When I got in the rental car at the Green Bay airport and turned on the radio, Me and You and a Dog Named Boo was playing.

2. One of the third-quarter video board ads during the Panthers-Pack game Saturday night was for Peter Piper's Pickles. Somehow, I don't see a pickle firm advertising at Giants Stadium.

This, of course, is different from than the black-suited New Yorker (I'm assuming he was from the Big Apple) sitting in coach on the Detroit-to-Newark portion of the flight. He stopped at the first-class coat closet, took off his jacket, and hung it up, stopping the flow of traffic into the aircraft. Then, when there was a break in the traffic, he walked into first class and had a conversation with the flight attendant. I couldn't hear the exchange, but it must have gone something like this, because the man walked back into coach with a cup of coffee:

Man: I want a cup of coffee.
Attendant: But you're sitting in coach.
Man: Give me a cup of coffee.
Attendant: Here, have a cup of coffee, you idiot. Then, get out of my face.

Or something like that.

"I'm getting ready to just reach over there and grab 'em, but I've got to restrain my hand."

--Giants tight end Jeremy Shockey, in the infamous Maxim interview that he now says he wishes you wouldn't read, to the magazine's female interviewer in reference to a part of her anatomy.

I'm sure many of you wonder what kinds of nuggets are in those NFL media guides we football scribes use to look up all kinds of team minutia. This tops my media need-to-know list from the 2003 guides, taken from the Carolina Panthers' 384-page spiral-bound book:

A color photo of Jason Spencer, the "HVAC/Refrigeration Apprentice," on page 50. Jason's head shot is right below a picture of maintenance assistant Armando Rojas, three pages removed from the photo of team seamstress Jackie Jackson and one page over from the shot of electrical assistant Ong Xiong.

I received lots of missives wondering what in the world I meant last week when I wished Chris Mortensen well. I should have explained what happened to him. Now I will. In late July, while on his farm near Atlanta, Mort was bitten by a tick. He developed a high fever and headaches, and his lungs filled with fluid. Doctors couldn't figure out what was wrong. He was hospitalized and nearly died. But one doctor found out Mort had his spleen removed when he was in high school and checked for a rare disease -- Babesia microti -- that can hit men who are over 50 and don't have a spleen. That was it. After treatment, Mort's back on the prowl for NFL news. There you go.

AT LEAST HE DIDN'T SIT ON THE COUCH. From Doug Shaffer of Las Vegas: I give Tim Couch credit for a few things. He didn't take his salary or his position as Cleveland's incumbent QB for granted. I saw a leaner, more athletic and stronger passer this preseason. He worked to keep the job, and hats off to him for trying. As a Browns fan, I'll back whomever helps the team win, but the choice wasn't as easy as you made it sound. The coaches made it look easy by calling more pass plays and more innovative stuff for Kelly Holcomb than they did for Couch.

Doug, you have probably seen more of the Browns QBs during the preseason than I did. All I saw was highlights. My eyes tell me Couch was pressing. He looked mechanical and tight. His first preseason game was a disaster. Holcomb just lets it flow out there. I can tell you with a high degree of confidence that Butch Davis wanted to pick Couch. But the Browns' playoff game against the Steelers last year and this preseason showed anyone who was watching -- with their eyes open, with no preconceived notions -- that Holcomb, for this team right now, is the better choice.

WHAT WAS THAT ODD COMMENT YOU MADE LAST WEEK ABOUT COREY DILLON FALLING OUT OF FAVOR IN CINCINNATI? HMMM? From Chris DeLotell of Mason, Ohio: Your comment about Marvin Lewis and Corey Dillon was interesting, as rumors of tension between the two have been going around the Queen City since Lewis took over. Do you really believe that the subtraction of Dillon would be that bad for the Bengals? Lewis wants guys who want to be here, and the Bengals only won two games with Dillon last year. Seems to me that Brandon Bennett is ready to carry the load.

Whoa, podnah. Corey Dillon's one of the top five or six backs in football. Brandon Bennett is Brandon Bennett. It's thinking like that, I believe, that could land you in Mike Brown Personnel School. Look, Dillon needs to apply himself more. Will he? I don't know. But please don't minimize what his loss would mean. He's the best player on the team.

PLEASE READ THIS SPECIAL DELIVERY. From Bob Cue of Dickinson, N.D.: Give me a lot of nice words about the Panthers. They must deserve a few. Coach Fox is in the process of straightening out a real mess. What's your take?'

My take is I'm picking them to make the playoffs, even with the unfortunate loss of Mark Fields to Hodgkin's Disease. For more, please read my Postcard from Training Camp on the Panthers.

YOU CAN'T BE SERIOUS ABOUT THE EAGLES. From Paul Swydan of Brookline, Mass.: You think the Eagles will win 12 games? Can you explain how this is possible? Hugh Douglas has left, and Duce Staley might get traded. How will the offense move the ball without any decent receivers or running backs? Donovan McNabb can't do it by himself. I know the 'Skins and 'Boys won't be that good, but the Giants look like a decent bet to get back to the playoffs, and the Eagles have to play the AFC East.

Well, Philly went 6-1 without McNabb last year, and it would have been 7-0 if David Akers had made a gimme kick at the Giants in the last game of the season. Looking at the Eagles' schedule, I see them being underdogs twice in 16 games -- Tampa Bay at home in Week 1 (if the bookies are smart) and at Miami in Week 14. I concede the Douglas point. But despite letting players go time and again over the past three years, Philadelphia has won more games (34) than any team in football. I trust them a lot more than you do.

YOU ARE MISSING THE BOAT ON THE RAVENS. From J. Frey of Hanover, Pa.: As a Ravens fan, your columns often disappoint me. Of course you're not the only one to miss this, but lost in all the coverage of the Mike Vick injury is the fact that Baltimore's defense completely shut the Falcons QB down. Ray Lewis has his boys ready to dominate once again.

I visited Ravens' camp last Monday and came away quite impressed. Lewis has a bunch of young whippersnappers dancing to his beat, and I love the aggressive scheme of defensive coordinator Mike Nolan. I think this will be a good team, and a playoff lock if it gets 1,500 yards from Jamal Lewis and 60 percent passing from the quarterback position.

HE CAN SEE COUCH WITH A STAR ON THE OLD HELMET. From Chris Leonowicz of Ossining, N.Y.: With Tim Couch -- in the final year of his contract -- named the backup QB in Cleveland, can you see the Cowboys going after him this year or next?

This year, no. Next year, certainly. Cleveland needs the insurance Couch will provide this year, and because he won't whine about losing the job, the Browns will keep him around this season. Next year, I could see Green Bay, Dallas, Arizona and maybe Washington or Carolina going after Couch, a system quarterback who will be too expensive for Cleveland to keep on the bench in 2004.

1. I think one of the best sports events I've seen in recent years was the 14-13 win by Saugus, Mass., over Richmond, Texas, last Thursday night in the U.S. semifinals of the Little League World Series. And I would like to applaud Richmond manager Jim Michalek. With the score tied at 13 and two out in the bottom of the seventh inning, a Saugus batter dribbled a ball down the the third-base line. With the potential winning run sprinting home, the Richmond third baseman correctly threw to first and appeared to edge the Saugus runner. The ump called the runner safe. Replays showed the kid was out. No matter. Saugus won. Michalek didn't argue. He thought the Saugus player was out, but he said after the game: "Human error is part of the game, and that's part of what makes baseball great." Well, I don't know about the second part of that, but to accept something he couldn't change and immediately comfort his crying players -- instead of tarnishing an incredible performance by arguing the call -- is a perfect example of what sportsmanship and being an adult is all about. Michalek can coach my kids anytime.

2a. I think I love what the Ted Washington trade does for New England. Assuming the DT, who was acquired from the Bears last week in exchange for a fourth-round draft choice next year, can play 20 solid, run-stuffing downs a game, he will provide the only thing the Patriots' defense lacked entering training camp. Washington has been healthy through training camp and is beginning the last season of a contract that will pay him $1.65 million in 2003. Players who are in contract years -- especially guys like Washington, who want another contract -- generally play through the little nicks that all lineman suffer. The 365-pounder joins a unit made up of other responsible veterans -- Rodney Harrison, Tedy Bruschi, Mike Vrabel, Rosevelt Colvin, Lawyer Milloy. And finally, the Patriots dealt a second-day draft pick from their treasure-trove of selections to get him. It's a smart risk to take on a 35-year-old guy. Veteran teams police themselves. Washington should be a good addition.

2b. I think I hate the fact that New England had all those draft picks and cap money and free-agency savvy entering this season and did nothing to upgrade its running game. On Sunday, the Patriots cut the terminally disappointing J.R. Redmond, leaving a questionable running backs crew -- Antowain Smith and Kevin Faulk and Patrick Pass -- in his wake. They'd better hope they hit the waiver-wire lottery sometime in the next seven days as teams make their final cuts. But any good running back, I think, will be snapped up off the waiver wire by Bill Parcells, who's not wholly happy with Troy Hambrick.

3. I think these are my quick-hit observations of the weekend past:

a. Amos Zereoue over Jerome Bettis as the Steelers starting running back. That took guts, Bill Cowher. The question is: Did you make the right choice? I still think a healthy Bettis is a bigger threat than Zereoue.

b. Baseball commissioner Bud Selig, who is also on the Green Bay Packers Board of Directors, toured the renovated Lambeau Field last week, privately, with Packers boss Bob Harlan. When Selig finished, he had one word: "Stunning." I got a tour of the place Saturday evening before the game from Packers PR man Aaron Popkey and loved the new look. The vistas, the food, the soon-to-re-open Packers Hall of Fame on site, the incredible variety of beers ... all while keeping the integrity of the classic bowl of seats intact. This is the one place I'd love to watch a game as a fan.

c. Jon Gruden and Andre Rison. Now there's a match made in football heaven.

d. I see that Duce Staley finally came to his senses and ended his holdout. I talked to Andy Reid Sunday, and the Eagles coach was holding no grudges. But I still think Staley gets beat out by Correll Buckhalter for the Eagles' starting running back job.

e. The Jets can weather the Pennington loss if Vinny Testaverde plays the way he did when I saw him in camp. When I observed the veteran QB, he completed three perfect 25-plus-yards strikes, and he looked like one of the most accurate passers in the game. The question is: Can he do that for 10 or 12 weeks? I doubt it. Not at age 40.

f. I can tell you there are a lot of people inside the Broncos headquarters who, upon hearing that Brian Griese is out with a sprained toe, had this response, "I told you so." I'm not saying this is what I think; I'm saying that's how football people think. At the end of his tenure in Denver, the Broncos -- some of them anyway -- didn't think Griese was tough enough.

g. Someone explain to me why Kent Graham hasn't been signed. It's idiocy. The guy wants to play, he's healthy and he's a perfect team guy, which means he won't complain about being a No. 3 quarterback.

h. The Cowboys' loss of cornerback cornerback Derek Ross for at least as month should register on a few radar screens around the NFC East, because it means teams in the division will be able to throw on Dallas much easier than they might have. Ross was having a great camp until he suffered cartilage damage to the knee Thursday night at Pittsburgh.

i. I'm starting to think the Raiders might waive Barret Robbins. They could go with Adam Treu and Matt Stinchcomb as their two centers.

j. Why can't anyone stop David Boston from gaining weight?

k. Wakeup call for Gerard Warren! Calling Mr. Warren! In three preseason games, the Browns defensive end has zero tackles. Uh-oh. It's going to be another one of those years for him.

4. I think It's been a long time, maybe forever, since I've seen as inspired a goal-line stand in August as I saw Saturday night, when Gilbert Brown and his torn biceps hung in there for four downs from the 1-yard line and stopped Panthers running back Stephen Davis. Four blasts into the line, zero yards. Brown was immense. There's no doubt he'll try to play the season with the injury. He looks like a real gamer.

5. Within 12 hours of James Thrash being laid out on the new field in Philly by a Ty Law hit Friday night, the cell phone of Eagles PR man Derek Boyko rang twice with calls from former Eagles. Friday night, Brian Mitchell and Irving Fryar both checked in to find out how Thrash was doing. That was classy, fellas. He's fine, by the way.

6. I think these are my non-football thoughts of the week:

a. It's times like these when I wish Pedro Martinez would just shut up, put cotton in his ears, not read the papers, and just pitch.

b. Did you know the San Diego Chicken is still touring? He was in New Jersey last week, and I hear he has been blackballed from major league parks because, allegedly, players and umps don't like how he shows them up. If so, that's absurd. Major League Baseball could use a little levity.

c. The problem with shoveling dirt on the Red Sox is that most nights they score six, seven or eight runs, and that can put a band-aid on an awful lot of Byung-Hyun Kim appearances.

d. Coffeenerdness: I find it hard to believe, but even in the heat of summer, when everyone in sight is lining up for their fraps at Starbucks, I'm still a grande hazelnut latte guy. The hot kind.

e. I can't watch that Queer Eye show. I'm sure it says something about me as a man, but I just can't do it.

7. I think I have never believed in the SI cover jinx, and I still don't. But we photographed Mike Vick for a potential cover a couple of days prior to his injury. That was scrapped. Then we looked at Plan B, and we shot Pennington last week, and then he went down. I'm not even going to tell you what Plan C is, because then the poor guy will slip in the shower today and tear a groin muscle, and it'll be all our fault.

8. I think if I'm Mike Martz, I'm pretty worried about my secondary. And not just worried about Dre' Bly leaving, or the injuries to the two safeties. But now Aeneas Williams, moved to safety, has been taking time off to rest his old body. I mean, how far down the depth chart can Martz go?

9. I think next week I'll make my NFL playoff picks -- Paul Zimmerman, as usual, provides his in the preview issue this week -- and I think you're going to be very surprised at what I do with Carolina. I like the Panthers quite a bit, and I'd love them if I thought their running game could be consistent.

10. I think, speaking of the Panthers, you have to watch the lesser-known part of their defense to really appreciate it. What speed the linebackers have. Will Witherspoon is jet-propelled back there.

Sports Illustrated senior writer Peter King covers the NFL beat for the magazine and is a regular contributor to SI.com. Monday Morning Quarterback appears in this space every week. Click here to send him a comment.