First Pre-Season Game is in the books….

And all I can say about it it that Seattle’s back-up players are better than San Diego’s back-ups. Starters got to play one quarter at the most, and then we saw the back-ups and the others play. Which in my opinion is the best football. The starters pretty much know they have employment secured for the rest of the fall, so they aren’t going to play that much. Everybody is still trying to get work for the fall, so they have much more motivation to perform in the pre-season. During the game the Monday Night Football crew were also pointing out some changes this year, among them being (in no particular order):

• Horse collar tackles don’t actually have to be a tackle to draw a penalty. A safety measure.
• They’ve expanded the rule to protect vunerable players (ie punters right after they’ve kicked, etc). Any contact will now draw a 15 yard penalty. People may say the sports degenerating down to touch football, but I can see the league’s point. It’s a safety issue. They’re in a position where they can’t protect themselves, they’re usually not anywhere near where the play is, and they can really get hurt….
• No more two-a-day practices. That was actually part of the new collective bargaining agreement. And there must be a minimum of 5 days off during the bye week.
• All scores are automatically reviewed by the replay official, who may direct the referee to look at it. This way the coaces don’t have to waste there allocated challenges.
• The big change this year in the rules was relating to the kick-off. The ball is now kicked off from the 35 yeard line, and the players on the kicking msut start with a body part on the 30 yard line. This is another change made in the name of player safety, but I can see the kick-off turning more into the opening touch-back than an actual kick-off return. In tonight’s game, I saw a the majority of them returned anyway, though that may be due to players trying to impress somebody into a roster spot, and possibly a job.

Hopefully the Seahawks will make the play-offs with a winning record this year….