As a society we have moved beyond the need to play preseason football.
It's not something college teams do, and they have great seasons. It is a bit sloppy in the first games, but it is not the NFL. They sell tickets and TV rights to the NFL preseason. However, the regular season was just extended to 17 games. The preseason has been eliminated. Maybe you can get to 18.
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First, stop the preseason. Football is incredibly dangerous and players can get hurt even if it isn't important to anyone except the most degenerate gamblers.
Saturday afternoon in Chicago was a heartbreaker as Bills linebacker Andre Smith was blocked completely by nobody on the Bears. This gave Smith a free shot at rookie quarterback Justin Fields. Smith took that free shot, and it was amazing. Smith was so excited about his hit that he knocked Fields' helmet off and received a half-the distance penalty for the personal foul.
Fields is the supposed future Bears player, but this was not his first game on the professional stage.
You might be tempted to think that Fields, who was not weighing much and is preseason friendly, would be brought back to the locker room by the Bears and give him a thorough check. His helmet flew three feet in the air after he was hit so hard. Of course, you would be wrong.
Khalil Herbert ran 13 yards for the touchdown the Bears made the next play. The Bears then attempted a two point conversion. Fields failed incompletely and Herbert was flagged as excessive roughness.
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Fields continued to play the game and got his blocking from Chicago's biggest scrubs. This was all in the second half, after Andy Dalton had started as quarterback. While Fields was able to showcase his scrambling skills, it didn't mean much because it was a Bears - Bills preseason game.
There is nothing good that can be made of any of it. The Bears are fortunate that Saturday was not worse than a Buffalo butt-kicking. It had a negative impact on everyone except those who placed the over.
