Preseason Confusion

Last Saturday evening, Titans Coach Jeff Fisher did not allow starting quarterback Vince Young to play in their preseason game at home against the Washington Redskins.  Young was reportedly being punished for having violated team policy by returning to his home for sleep rather than staying at the team’s hotel rooms.  It was a bit of a disappointment, of course, for fans who attended the game, as well as those who watched it on television (in Nashville, of course, but I would assume also in Washington and wherever it was watched by Young/Titan/NFL fans).

Somehow, Tennessean columnist Joe Biddle has managed to make a column out of this—a muddled, confused and contradictory column, mind you, but yes, a column.  Let’s ignore for the moment the fact that Biddle simultaneously argues that Fisher “did the right thing” and that the Titans “stuck it to their fans” by not playing Young (I mean, Biddle often meanders like this in his columns) and just pay attention to the two main contentions: 1. NFL preseason games are overpriced and a way to “stick it to the fans” and 2. Vince Young should not have been benched because it “disappointed the fans.”

I understand neither point.  On the first one, maybe I’m too much of a pure capitalist on this, but the NFL is, afterall, a business.  While I LOVE what this particular business has done to help Nashville as a community cohere, I certainly understand that the team has an interest in turning a profit.  Moreover, I also understand that I have a choice to purchase tickets and attend games or stay at home where, again, I can choose to watch the Titans on television or go to dinner with my Bonnie (I chose the latter, by the way, and Watermark—even with a new chef—gets the thumbs up from both of us).  While I love the Titans, second only to the Bucs, I have chosen to watch all of their games on television.  It’s not only that I actually enjoy most sports on television rather than attending the live event, I also am simply too cheap to pay the price of admission.  You know what:  that’s the way it works.  The Titans set the prices, and I make a decision on what I’ll do with my wallet.  The Titans can do this during the regular season or during the preseason.  How is the man “sticking it to me” by offering to sell me a ticket?

Ground two: I suppose, if I follow Biddle’s logic (again, I decidedly do not), it would be OK to bench a second string offensive lineman who was not a marquee player because that would not have disappointed the fans (or at least, it would not have disappointed his sister, her husband and their kids--his primary evidence). Let’s face it: you never know who you’re going to get to see in a given game.  Injuries, punishments, family emergencies, all occur.  I am more than a little baffled when an organization is blamed for something out of their control.  Young did what Young did.  The team has its policies.  ‘Nuf said.

Ultimate question: with whom should I be more frustrated?  With Biddle for wasting my time with such a column?   Or with myself for wasting even more of my time by writing this?

Comments

[Daniel]

Most longtime sports columnists are craptastic. As I put it on Mashup, this was a really inexpensive way to teach Young a valuable lesson. He got embarrassed and the team lost, but he's learning what it means to be a team leader at the professional level. That's got to pay dividends down the road.

Would Fisher have done that in the regular season? I dunno.

[Ken]

Xark are you doing your football matchups?

[Daniel]

Funny you would mention that, Ken. I just finished the Week 1 picks at our new football site, FFBMashup.com. Getting ready to put up the links now...