Depending on who you ask, football is either back or we have entered the most painful stretch of the offseason. Games are on, but not games anyone wants to watch. Fred Toucher doesn’t see the appeal of the NFL preseason and he isn’t sure the networks know that a lot of people agree with him.
Thursday night’s Hall of Fame Game in Canton may have had the attention of many, but Toucher didn’t think the scheduling was particularly fan-friendly.
“The game kicked off around 8:30. Good and good for the pre-season where they’re going to have your rapt attention for the whole game,” he said facetiously on Friday’s edition of Toucher & Rich.
What stood out to Toucher was the pregame ceremony. He laughed about Joe Kleko stumbling as he took the field and Demarcus Ware’s rendition of the national anthem. As for the game itself though, he lost interest quickly.
“After about halfway through the first quarter, I didn’t know one player and even if I did know a player, it would have been like a safety or something,” he said. “And I didn’t care at all anymore. Like, I couldn’t. I tried to keep focus, but I couldn’t.”
Dan Roach, who was filling in for Rich Shertenlieb on Friday, said he also quickly lost interest in the game, because all he wanted to see was the pregame show.
“I tell you that for me, my favorite part was the 7 to 8 hour,” he said. “You know what I mean? As opposed to the actual game. It was just nice to have people talking football.”
The Browns’ victory over the Jets in the Hall of Fame Game was the start of the NFL pre-season. The regular season begins on September 7.
