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Show 4, 5 ubs Pi ai:a& i' lines such as that from Football Register and Sporting News' annual compendium of pro players ' Delete marker in r dont you start the season off with a friends, and every good partys main in- party of gredient is good food. We at Albertsons have all your party and snack needs at low, low prices. So plan your season opener around good food from E REALLY CARE. TRY THIS FAVORTTE X & ! DANISH PASTRIES BAKED FRESH DAILY IN OUR MODERN BAKERIES u . ' EACH i 3 X BAKERY PRICES NOT EFFECTIVE IN CEDAR CITY. UTAH C 3 u H We really care. SEPT. T9th THRU 21st ...... 'iwOTMHyiNDReeKSPniNGs, Wyoming PRICESf-FFECTTIV- jj E : , . ' seLA-TA- and a- championship season. Upon the are the days when six and seven exhibition games are common- place. and the debate sizzles when the question is broached about all n those games being worth the injuries they cause Few coaches are enthusiastic about the mushrooming number of pre-seaso- pre-seaso- n games, but coaches mathedon t deal with bottom-lin- e matics. and this is one area where the head coach, even if he is the extravagant George Ailen, has little to say about the situation Even someone like Alien realizes that without all those exhibition games, he would be unable to afford all the talent he acquires for the high-price- d Washington Redskins Without exhibition games we woukdn t be in the black, says William Clay Ford, owner of the Detroit Lions. "I wish we could make it go on the regular season and what we get from television But we can t due to the players' association, agents and other evils. We need the games to keep solvent. A glance at the 1975 financial statement of the New England Patriots supports Ford In five years the Patriots' operating expenses have escalated from $6 8 million to S8 3 million. Last year, despite a wildcat strike by the Patriot players which cancelled a game and fermented a chalky taste in the mouths of New England fans the club still operated pre-seas- j at a profit of $579,856. But without presoason revenues which totaled $1 3 million, the Patriots would have finished far in the red pre-seaso- JL.. n the NFL Colts crumbled to a 9 record and head coach Don McCafferty was fired If any coach is sour toward exhibition games itoughttobeLouSaban of the Buffalo Bills. In 1971, Saban lost Duranko for the season when the defensive lineman was injured in an exhibition Saban. it turned out. didn t last the season, either, being forced out with five games left on the schedule Last year in Buffalo early injuries again undermined a Saban club. Half of the Bills' prize secondary was the worse for wear before the first regular-seasokickoff alt pro cornerback Robert James tore up a knee and missed all the games, and another all pro, free safety Tony Greene, broke his collarbone in the first exhibition Greene played later, though only at about 60 percent efficiency The result was that the Bills, despite another super season from 0 J Simpson (who caught 28 passes for 426 yards in addition to scoring a league record 23 touchdowns and gaming 1.817 yards on the ground) and 25 touchdown passes from Joe Ferguson, finished up the track Buffalo n was so decimated by defensive injuries that the loss of wide receiver Amad Rashad, also irreparably hurt in the exhibitions, was nh'V'ured hy all the other bandages The 1975 preseason seemed particularly expensive, and to a number of teams in addition to the Bills Claude Humphrey, the big defensive end of the Atlanta Falcons tore up his knee and didn t play a minute all year A knee injury to Thom Darden, the Cleveland Browns safetyman, left him hors de combat for the sea; t $op AnotJw.safptv.. Die k Anowson 644 Fie iMaaVk OolpA ins t a d beeW S 'Prr jured in the previous Bowl Anderson aggravated that in pre-seaso- regular schedule, but his mobility suffered and he wound up spending more time on the bench than m the huddle. Gone are the days when pro football teams played a smattering of exhibition games then opened the game, the n in comeback during ttempted a n i a. pre-seaso- shoulder 5-- you are, why Albert-sons...W- England quarterback, separated his would be more the length of Love ' ' Story than Warand Peace It is starthng how many players in the National FootDali League have missed entire seasons without playing so much as a game. Prominent players, too. Doug Dressier when he was with the Cincinnati Bengals, Pete Duranko when he was with the Denver Broncos. Dave Foley, as a New York Jet. Bubba Smith of the Baltimore Colts, and Harmon Wages of the Atlanta Falcons Crippling injuries suffered in exhibition games are the bete noire of coaches all over the league In 1971. the Baltimore Colts had gone to the American Conference s title game, in 1972. after Smith wrecked his knee when he ran into a sideline WATCHING THE GAME THIS WEEKEND? It jury in an exhibition game and was of no use whatsoever to coach Don Shula. Jim Plunkett the then New ' Players andor critics of the NFL s interminable exhibition season suggest that the league expand the ii yOu iC championship season all to those games they play going make more of them count As say, Roselle has an answer Pete always The commissioner of the NFL says that because so many of the teams share stadiums with baseball clubs, the football franchise would be hardpressed to obtain an appreciable number of dates before October Rozelle estimates tha Jhe ' regular season could be expanded. t!Vi T'4 ter 1 6 games but that would Cent on page!1 i J |
