Steve Christilaw: The NFL returns to action next week, with all it thrills and ills

One more week.

Yes, my NFL-obsessed friends, the object of your fascination, dedication and imagination returns next Thursday, Aug. 2, when teams wearing the colors of the Chicago Bears and the Baltimore Ravens play the annual game to kick off Hall of Fame weekend in Canton, Ohio.

It’s time to dig out those vintage jerseys, the big foam fingers (for the two or three of you who ever actually put them away for the off-season) and throw yourself a tailgate party!

Just, well, ease into it, OK? Do like the league does and start small. Maybe grill a few brats or throw together a pot of chili. Nothing full-blown; this first game doesn’t warrant it.

Any resemblance between this game and a regular season NFL game is purely coincidental. The colors will be right. The ever-present logos will be right. Just don’t read the name on the back of the jersey unless you have the expanded-edition of the team roster. In fact, you might want to make sure you have high-speed Internet for this one because you’re going to want to Google-search a lot of these guys.

Bears quarterback Mitchell Trubisky may sign an autograph or two and Ravens QB Joe Flacco will pay a reasonable amount of attention to what happens on the field, but don’t expect much more than that. Just don’t be surprised to catch either one of them sneaking a hot dog on the sideline by the second quarter.

If you look at the official NFL schedule, this first outing doesn’t even count as a preseason game – making it a pre-preseason game.

Back in the old days, the NFL champion would play an exhibition game against a team made up of college all-stars to start the new season. Now it’s simply an exhibition game featuring players who will likely be unemployed five weeks hence. It’s more of a game-length promo for the Hall of Fame.

The real treat comes two days later, when the Hall of Fame Class of 2018 is inducted. Sandpoint native and University of Idaho alum Jerry Kramer will finally take his place alongside a long list of Green Bay teammates from the Vince Lombardi era. It’s an overdue honor for one of the game’s best offensive linemen and one of its best-ever ambassadors.

There are a couple of really good things about the start to the NFL season.

For one, it’s a return to action for the Spokane Valley Sea Hawkers. That spells fun times on the road to home games and some fund-raising for area charities.

And it answers that age-old question: “What are we going to do on Thursday night?”

It also raises a concern.

Football is a brutal game, and we’re just beginning to understand HOW brutal.

We’ve seen too many tragedies first-hand to ignore the damage the game can do. The list of greats who have suffered and died because of football-related injury and damage starts in that very same Hall of Fame that Kramer and the rest of the Class of 2018 will walk into next Saturday.

Take in a biography or two on the NFL Network. Men who ran the ball so gracefully are barely able to walk now that their careers are over. Defenders who routinely delivered the most devastating hits have difficulty raising their arms to comb their own hair.

They earned a healthy salary, but they also are paying a high price for having played the game. And now we’ve seen the damage dip well into the ranks of college football in our own backyard.

Kenny Easley was one of the finest safeties and greatest Seahawk to ever play the game, and his career was cut short by the effects of taking too much ibuprofen to control the pain of delivering so many crunching tackles. Kam Chancellor, the hero of so many Seahawks games and the enforcer for the legendary Legion of Boom, has seen his body give out and his career is likely over. They are not alone.

There’s a lot of money to be made as an NFL player and even more to be made as an NFL owner, so the impetus to change the game and make it safer is just a small ember waiting to take flame.

Enforcing new rules may make a difference. Improved equipment may make a difference. It remains to be seen how much.

Some suggest the only way to mitigate that damage is to go back to the old days of leather helmets and modest pads – turn the NFL into something closer to rugby or Australian Rules Football.

Who’s to say.

Just remember the long-term cost of those incredible hits we all cheer for.

The cheers have long faded when the check comes due.