The League Needs to PLAY IT SAFE

Two more exhibition weekends to go, and at the rate quarterbacks are falling in the NFL, we’re going to be watching the World League opening day.

This year’s Monday night TV opener: Jon Kitna versus T.J. Rubley.

And at halftime, Frank Gifford will be talking with John Sacca about next week’s big tilt.

There are not enough good quarterbacks to go around as it is, yet the good ones continue to be thrown into harm’s way during games that do not count.

John Elway, Mark Brunell and Kerry Collins--all representing contending teams--already have been forced from the field with injuries. This last week, Dan Marino and Brett Favre could be seen scrambling for their good health--and how many people still would be picking the Packers to repeat if Favre went down?

Execution is probably too drastic a measure for anyone injuring a quarterback, but then again, maybe Barry Switzer was packing that rod to take out the first guy who dared to lay a hand on Troy Aikman.

Green Bay defensive lineman Reggie White, who makes his living tackling quarterbacks, was outraged recently when it was suggested that Denver linebacker Bill Romanowski should be fined for breaking Collins’ jaw in two places.

“It’s only when quarterbacks get hurt that a big deal is made,” White said. “[Injuries are] happening on our side of the ball too. We can’t allow the league to take away our aggressiveness and that’s what they’re doing.”

This goes to prove that defensive linemen should be seen and not heard.

The NFL is all about quarterbacks. If you have one, you are a contender for the Super Bowl. If you don’t, you are Atlanta or New Orleans.

Jacksonville is now all about Natrone Means, three hard yards at a time, and 60,000 people dressed in $45 Brunell jerseys, who have already paid an average of $40 a ticket, wanting to know now why Coach Tom Coughlin was risking the team’s whole season in the second quarter of a throw-away game.

Before the season has even started, Jacksonville’s is pretty much over.

So why play Brunell, Marino, Elway and Favre at all in exhibitions?

Two reasons: coaches and owners.

Coaches can never get enough practice time. Besides mini-camps, teams now conduct quarterback camps and summer school during the off-season, and still it’s not enough.

“The preseason now has taken on a very special time because of the new rules we’re playing under and free agency the way it is,” said Mike Holmgren, Packer coach. “We have a lot of young people we have to play in those games. People who are very vital to the team.

“At the same time, although Brett Favre has been MVP of the league for the past two years, he still has to get ready to play.”

How come college teams don’t need preseason games?

Miami Coach Jimmy Johnson has lost more players than any other coach in the league this exhibition season, among them rookie wide receiver Yatil Green for the year, but he said, “It’s a good thing we’ve got five preseason games because we definitely need some work.”

There was talk before the season of limiting exhibitions to two games and lengthening the regular season to 18, but coaches contend their product will suffer.

“You can just see the play around the league,” New England Coach Pete Carroll said. “It’s shabby this time of year, compared to what it is by the opener.”

But how shabby would the Patriots look in their regular-season opener without Drew Bledsoe?

“If there’s a different way to do things, I don’t know what it is,” said Bobby Beathard, Charger general manager. “Four games to me seems like the right number, but I will say, once you are in the preseason, boy, you just sweat it out. You’re nervous the whole time, hoping you can get through without the devastating injuries.”

The owners will continue to play the games that do not count because fans have granted them a license to steal. It has become common practice in the NFL to include exhibition games in season-ticket packages, charging the same fare for a game that doesn’t count as a game that does.

It’s a blatant rip-off, but who’s complaining? More than 60,000 fans were at Lambeau Field on a Thursday night to watch the Packers and there were only 12 no-shows.

The average ticket price in the NFL a year ago was $35.74. And, for example, if you are a season-ticket holder in Denver, you are reminded constantly that there is a waiting list of thousands to take your place. No one has ever seen that waiting list, but go ahead, call their bluff.

Although teams continue to charge premium prices for exhibition games, coaches have shown no compulsion to play their regulars beyond halftime. Despite these cameo appearances, some of the stars of the game continue to fall, and so what happens to the NFL if there are more Trent Dilfers than John Elways?

“We played a game here against New England a couple weeks ago and they called it an ugly game, and it was a 7-3 game,” White said. “Why is it that good defense is ugly?”

Would you pay an average of $35.74 a ticket to watch good defense go at it week after week? Take away the game’s best quarterbacks, and that’s all that will be left.

“I’m not the type of guy to end a guy’s career,” White said. “But when you have a great quarterback, and you can put him out for a week or so, that gives you a chance to win.”

It’s the “great” quarterbacks who remain in jeopardy. Why knock Dilfer out of the game? If you’re playing defense and you want to win, you’d rather have him in there.

Jessie Armstead, now the New York Giants’ employee of the month after knocking Brunell out with a knee-high tackle, probably didn’t know his team was scheduled to play Jacksonville again the second week of the regular season. Sure he didn’t.

Armstead, however, has set the stage for one of those classic NFL confrontations when the Giants take on the Jaguars: New York’s Dave Brown versus Jacksonville’s Rob Johnson, who has thrown seven regular-season passes in his career, in a battle of stiffs.

There simply aren’t enough crowd-pleasing quarterbacks coming out of college ready to make an impact in the NFL. In the last seven years, only 13 quarterbacks have been selected in the first round of the draft, and although they were being counted on as franchise players, already five of them--Tommy Maddox, Andre Ware, David Klingler, Dan McGwire and Todd Marinovich--have to be considered costly mistakes.

The best of the rest: Jeff George, Bledsoe, Collins. And then the talent begins to thin with Steve McNair, Dilfer, Rick Mirer and Heath Shuler.

At some point this season, fans may have to pay to see Billy Joe Tolliver square off against Jeff Brohm. Save the game--save the quarterbacks.

Former Giant quarterback Phil Simms, asked about changes that might be made to protect the game’s greatest players during the exhibition season, told reporters it would not be right.

“Telling a defense they can’t blitz is like telling an offense they can’t throw,” he said. “They’ve done everything they can do. It’s a violent game and guys are going to get hurt.”

Nonsense. Why do defenses have to blitz in exhibition play? Why do quarterbacks have to be subjected to violence and a premature end to their seasons? Why not put a red jersey on quarterbacks and make them off limits, as every team does in practice? Why not position snipers at both ends of the stadium with orders to fire any time some eager defender looks hellbent on making a name for himself at a quarterback’s expense?

Begin by taking aim at Romanowski, who after being fined $20,000 for hitting Collins, announced, “It’s not going to change the way I play. Maybe I’ll hit him harder next time. You never know.”

OK, so maybe things change in the regular season, but why throw it all away before it starts? If it’s already a phony game--with fans spending big money to watch watered-down offenses and, for the most part, scrubs at work--what’s the risk in making it obvious that quarterbacks will be protected at all costs?

Maybe the solution is to lie. If the NFL, according to Favre’s new book, can tell the world during Super Bowl week that it is still reviewing Favre’s request to have his alcohol ban lifted, all the while knowing he already is drinking, why not switch jerseys and pass off taxi-squad quarterbacks as Favre, Brunell and Collins. If you can persuade 60,000 people to pay regular-season ticket prices for practice games, who’s to say anyone will be smart enough to figure it out?