Julian Edelman was carted off the field in a Friday night game with the Lions. The Patriots' receiver plays one of the most dangerous positions in sports as he runs across the middle as a slot receiver. He was taken out of the game, and the team does not know if he will return. The issue with his injury has nothing to do with football as much as it does with the preseason. There have been many suggestions on shortening or fixing the preseason, and I believe that we must go to extremes to stop these things from happening.
The Patriots will be fine
I feel bad for Edelman, but the Patriots will be fine if he were to miss extended time or the whole season. Edelman is one of the best receivers in football, but he can be replaced in The Patriots' system. It is a sad reality of their team. It is so well run that they can solve any problem they have. They once had Troy Brown playing offense and defense. They won a Super Bowl with that scheme in place, and I have no doubt they could correct their offense to account for Edelman's absence. The problem with the NFL is that he should not be hurt.
Players get hurt
The injuries in football are due to the immense speed of the game, physical violence that is involved, and the number of people that are on the field for every play.
You and I cannot stop football players from getting hurt because you cannot play football at half speed. You will get hurt if you play at half speed, and you could have your career ended at half speed. There must be another way to stop the NFL from losing players across the preseason schedule.
What about flag football?
Michael Vick is pushing his flag football league, and he was on the ESPN airwaves recently giving multiple interviews on the subject.
I am intrigued by the league, and that could be a solution for the preseason. These players know how to play with little to no contact in practice, and it may be in the league's best interest to have the players play flag football in the preseason. The automatic claim would be that flag football does not tell you what the players can do in live action, but I have an answer for that.
Evaluate your players better
I have no reason to believe that NFL teams learn anything from the preseason unless a player makes one remarkable play that gets them on the team. Sadly, those are plays that could get people hurt because they are usually big hits. Coaches and teams need to learn their players, and they must change their evaluation system so players can be safe in the preseason.
