Saying goodbye to summer is hard. As it winds down, we lose days at the beach, outdoor activities, baseball and more. But, as August turns to September, football season beckons across the nation. Training camp has been in full swing for a few weeks now with the defending champs on Hard Knocks and their pursuers trying to close the gap on them. While the teams get ready, yours truly and the gang at The Breakdown are preparing to bring you coverage of the season, especially on the Four Downs feed where Sean and I are starting previews. Since I’m in a generous mood this week, in addition to the first preview pod, I wanted to give you a written edition of Four Downs. In this one we’ll talk all things camp & preseason as well some interesting comments from the commissioner this week. Let’s move those chains!

First Down

Overstuffing the Golden Goose: Let’s start off the field so we can end on a less annoying note in this piece. On Tuesday some comments made by commissioner Goodell made waves after an interview with German television network RTL/tv. In the interview “the shields” lead representative said, “at some point there will be NFL teams outside the USA, I have no doubt that this will happen one day.” Now I realize this isn’t exactly a new story for the NFL, as the league has been playing games abroad for several years, but when Goodell says something, I tend to think it’s a good bet he’ll make it happen. I’m not so much alarmed by this as I am just frustrated at the continued overstuffing of the golden goose that is this game, we call football.

The NFL gained its place in American culture by mastering a less is more approach to giving you, their product. They owned Sunday, have for decades, sprinkled in Monday, and threw you a bone on Thursday because it became the new Friday. But now we’re at the point where they are trying to dominate four time slots on Sunday, multiple holidays, Friday’s, Saturday’s, Tuesday’s you name it they want it. The league does this because it continues to make money hand over fist while we keep attending games and watching and believe me, I’m amongst all of you that are attending and watching. But at some point, I have to think that this is going to become too much of a good thing, especially when these additional “features” come at the expense of the product. The players cannot stay healthy in the preseason, let alone in the regular season when the schedule has them playing on varying rest, the field surfaces are an issue, and the product is bad in at least half of the games on a weekend. Rather than getting more teams in the league and more time slots on our channel guides, can we just focus on putting the best product on the field possible Roger?

Second Down

Number 1 Overall’s 1st Start: With preseason comes a string of unofficial debuts in the league, some more noteworthy than others. The one everyone had their eyes on the most in preseason week one though was Fernando Mendoza, the first overall pick in April’s draft by the Raiders. He’s been in a camp time share with veteran Kirk Cousins who most expect to begin the season under center. Regardless of that everyone was interested in how the new face of the franchise would perform in his first live game reps. Fortunately for Fernando and Raiders fans, number 15 hit the ground running, going ten of 16 for 97 yards and a score against the Cardinals at Allegiant Stadium last Friday night. He looked confident, delivering the ball with force and decisiveness in tight windows, just like we saw him do in college. Time will tell if he can keep it up, but before long we may see his name on a marquee on the Vegas Strip like the legends that performed on there before him.

Third Down

Start the Music: That’s right Cleveland it’s time for another round of your favorite game, quarterback musical chairs. The Browns hit camp with a new head coach in Todd Monken and an offense that features an exciting young core of explosive weapons…but surprise they don’t have a trigger man under center to run the offense. Late last season we saw Shedeur Sanders debut as the signal caller, giving the team mixed results at best. Now he’s in a battle with Deshaun Watson for the starters job though it’s looking more like a race to the bottom right now. Neither did anything special against the Bears in preseason week one, with Sanders going 6 for 11 with an INT and Watson getting sacked five times, in spite of completing 11 out of 15 passes. It’d be a shame to waste Boston, Concepcion, Judkins, Fannin and Jeudy, but wasting fun offensive weapons has been Cleveland’s specialty since Bernie Kosar retired.

Fourth Down

Lone Star Homecoming: Sunday night brought a rare news dump to Cowboys fans from NFL insiders as future Hall of Famer and DeSoto Texas native Von Miller announced he would be signing with the Dallas Cowboys. The former Texas A&M star inked a 1-year deal for $5.5 million to join the galaxy of stars to don the Cowboys iconic threads. While it may seem easy to dismiss a 37-year-old pass rushers chances of helping this squad, I’d caution you on that as Miller had nine sacks last year in Washington. He’ll compliment this newly assembled Dallas D that will do it’s best to replicate the “doomsday defense” the Cowboys boasted in the 60’s and 70’s, and while those are big shoes to fill, their personnel may be able to come close. Miller met with the media and couldn’t contain his excitement after growing up rooting for Dallas and starring for one of the top college programs in the state.

“It’s like, that movie Inception, like a dream within a dream. You know, I, I always wanted to play in the National Football League, and then you play for the Dallas Cowboys.” – Von Miller on signing with Dallas

Miller also went on to tell the media that he is there to help the Cowboys win the Super Bowl, a ring that would be the third of his outstanding career. He even made time to have some fun with new teammate, fullback Hunter Luepke who wears the number 40, the number Miller sported in college as well his stints with Buffalo and LA. Negotiations are ongoing but let’s just say I think Von will find a price that works for both parties before week one.

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