Some great wisdom has been handed down from ancient times.
The old, old, old days.
The time when dinosaurs populated the earth.
The days when the American Football League was still in business.
Back then, a reserve quarterback for the Dallas Texans gathered a crowd to impart wisdom that would still be useful today.
On a brutally hot afternoon with temperatures reaching nearly 38 degrees Celsius and humidity at times just over 800 degrees Celsius, Jacky Lee took a break from throwing post patterns to make a truly meaningful point.
“Football,” he said, “is not designed to be played in August.”
Jacky was right in many ways.
Players get cramps and faint during training camp, making it difficult for coaches to even put a team together.
And of course, this is also the time of the pre-season games – the absolute curse of every professional sport.
But because this is professional football, fans are trained to love it and will grit their teeth at meaningless practice games disguised as real games.
They cheer for running backs who will be launching careers as real estate agents in a few weeks.
Jacky Lee was a seer of his time.
I DOUBT that Mike Macdonald ever heard of Jacky Lee.
However, I assure you that the Seahawks’ rookie coach has spent the last few days thinking about whether it makes sense to play football in August.
He was certainly thinking about it when linebacker Uchenna Nwosu was led off the field during a friendly against Cleveland on Saturday night.
Oddly enough, Nwosu was one of the few starters to take some snaps in this third and final preseason waste.
Now there is a problem.
To put this injury into perspective, Nwosu was probably the Hawks’ best defensive player for two years – with a total of 9 1/2
Sacks, along with a handful of pressures and a solid edge against the run.
Nwosu earned a contract extension with that good year, but then suffered a pectoral injury in Week 7 of 2023.
One of the bright spots Macdonald had this season was the return of Nwosu.
And now?
The Seahawks released their 53-man roster on Tuesday and kept Nwosu on it despite his knee sprain.
There is hope that he will return in two or three weeks.
If he had been placed on the injured list, Uchenna would have had to sit out at least four games.
IT IS A It is a mystery why valuable players like Uchenna Nwosu would risk their lives in a completely meaningless friendly match just one week before the start of the regular season.
The bizarre thing is that the coaches keep saying that they are protecting the regular players and leaving them on the bench.
What happens then?
Is the temptation to try a new lineup with three or four starters – perhaps just for a few games – too great for the staff?
This happens every year and with pretty much every team.
I had hoped that Macdonald, young and open to new ideas, would be more cautious.
No.
Is Mike now lying in bed, unable to sleep, vowing to be more careful with his key players in the coming summers?
Sure, exactly.
But I’m betting the players will play next August if a position coach wants to put a few linemen on the field for a few snaps.
Coaches can’t do anything about it.
Nor can the owners cut back on exhibitions and thereby lose money.
Jacky Lee understood all this.
Football has no place in August.
But next summer you will see it again.
Email: [email protected]
Steve Cameron’s Cheap Seats columns appear four times a week in The Press, usually Tuesday to Friday unless there is something happening.
Steve suggests you take his opinions in the spirit of a Jimmy Buffett song: “Breathe In, Breathe Out, Move On.”
