Cowlishaw: For starters, you don’t get what you pay for in NFL preseason; here’s how to fix it

Arizona’s Carson Palmer threw four passes. Pittsburgh’s Ben Roethlisberger threw three. Detroit’s Matt Stafford threw two.

Did you enjoy the NFL’s return?

This complaint has been filed before, but it’s never been properly heard on behalf of NFL fans, who deserve better. The four-game preseason has long been a joke, but each year the star players are restricted even further from participating. Yet these games are part of the season-ticket package, meaning fans pay 20 percent of their season-ticket money in most cities for games that don’t count played by guys bound for arena leagues.

So how do we fix this problem?

The NFL failed miserably in its attempt to peddle an 18-game regular season with two exhibitions in place of the current 16-4 format. Like everything in life, it’s all about timing, and being in the midst of a billion-dollar concussion lawsuit wasn’t really the time to try to sell players on taking more hits.

Let’s accept the 16-game regular season is here to stay. What’s wrong with 16-2?

The coaches still have entire training camps to evaluate the back end of their rosters. College teams manage to get ready for games that will significantly impact their playoff hopes without any preseason games. The pros, with all their extra spring and summer work, can’t possibly argue that two is not enough.

Seriously, the only complaint about cutting the preseason in half would come from the owners, whose product is the most lucrative by far in American sports. The current TV contracts with all the rights-holders pay the NFL $5 billion per year. Do the math, divide by 32, and you can see that NFL teams can pay their entire rosters for the season before selling that first ticket.

But let’s acknowledge that the greed of these men won’t allow them to willingly give up 10 percent of their ticket revenue. So everyone gets nine home games instead of 10, they jack up the prices 7 or 8 percent and the season-ticket holders don’t care because they’re still paying less and they have gotten rid of one of those silly August games.

In the end, the teams get a better product with fewer injuries to key players to start the season.

If we have to throw the owners a bone to allow them to swallow this tiny reduction in their massive profits, let’s give them those two extra playoff games on the opening postseason weekend, increasing the field to 14 teams.

The top team in each conference would still get the much-sought bye, and those tripleheaders on wild-card weekend would confine Americans to their couches for a record amount of time.