A lotta accidents around here for a quiet neighborhood.

The hot debate seems to be whether the NFL should cut back, or even eliminate, pre-season football. On Mike & Mike this morning, their listeners voted 52 to 48 percent against eliminating the pre-season entirely. That's pretty close for a radical change. But with guys like Clinton Portis getting injured, there are a lot of angry, scared fans. News out of Chicago is that Mike Brown could play with his tweaked (technical term) Achilles tendon, but he may still sit out most or all of the pre-season. It raises the question, if pre-season football is of so little utility that a team may hold out a healthy player for fear of injury, then what's the point? The answer is also the reason that the NFL will never shorten the pre-season. NFL owners get to charge season ticket buyers full price for seats and parking two extra games a year. And, since the players would make the same amount regardless of how long the pre-season was, the games are largely free for the owners to put on. It's a great gig for the owners. Do you really see them giving that up? Meanwhile, anyone who the Bears' coaches feel can get by without pre-season games, I'm all for them sitting them out with "injuries".