It’s time for the league to cut back on preseason games

The NFL’s four-game exhibition season is too long, too hazardous and too irrelevant to serve the purpose for which it once was intended.

Under the current format, injuries are piling up before opening day, seasons are lost before they officially start and careers are often shortened needlessly.

What other business eliminates as many assets before starting on the work clock as the NFL does? How much is too much when you’re talking about blown out knees and fractured fibulas?

When is enough really enough? We say now, yesterday and last year.

Remember when the Atlanta Falcons lost quarterback Michael Vick in their second preseason game a year ago? And the New York Jets lost Chad Pennington not long after?

With its long, over-baked preseason, the NFL randomly handicaps teams each summer. The Falcons and Jets drew short straws a year ago.

The Arizona Cardinals, Miami Dolphins and Philadelphia Eagles are in jeopardy this summer. The Cardinals have lost leading receiver Anquan Boldin (knee) and defensive end Fred Wakefield (foot) until mid-October, and running back Marcel Shipp (broken fibula) for the season.

The Dolphins won’t have receiver David Boston (patellar tendon) this year and safety Chris Akins (knee) perhaps ever again. The Eagles have lost defensive end N.D. Kalu (knee) and running back Correll Buckhalter (patellar tendon) for the season.

Players are getting hurt in practice, too, like Boldin and Buffalo rookie quarterback J.P. Losman (fibula). You can’t cut back on practice, but you can cut back on preseason games.

A quick history lesson: The NFL used to play five preseason games in the 1960s, went to six in the early ‘70s, and down to four in 1978, when the league adopted its 16-game regular-season format.

The time has come to cut down more. In an era when players report to camp in shape because of off-season workouts, the league should work to assure that teams go into the season as close to full strength as possible.

In today’s salary cap climate, starters rarely play more than a series in the first and fourth exhibition games. They get game-conditioned in the second and third games. Rookies and players trying to make the team get much of the rest of the time.

So here’s a suggestion: Play two controlled scrimmages against other teams and two preseason games. Get the starters ready in games, give the rookies a chance to show under set conditions.

It would work, of course, unless all the owners really cared about was collecting preseason game revenue.