can you smell it?

Time to focus on a topic I could write about endlessly: sports.

The first NFL preseason game is less than 10 days away, and the sweet sweaty scent of football is sauntering through the air. While much of the NFL media attention has recently been dedicated to the Brett Favre saga, soon enough columnists and analysts will be debating the merits of preseason football. Raised will be concerns over injuries to prominent players, monotony of meaningless contests and the exploitation of fans and local markets.

There's some validity to the aforementioned concerns, but preseason football games offer a unique excitement rarely displayed on such a prominent stage. Sure it's exciting to see star players debut for new teams and to see the top draft picks taste NFL action for the first time, but these moments are often fleeting and often last only through the first quarter or first half of the game.

For me, the real excitement begins in the second half, when career reserves, late-round draft picks and undrafted free agents have the opportunity to prove their value to their coaches and teammates. Career reserves who rarely see the field during the regular season can bask in the glory of playing time during the preseason. And as rosters are trimmed shorter and shorter each week, these reserves battle to prolong their careers against newcomers fighting for a spot on an NFL team. Because of the popularity and televised coverage of preseason football, and the fact that the NFL does not have a minor league or developmental counterpart, these battles create a dynamic unique among the major professional sports.

I'm not suggesting that preseason games are as exciting to watch as the regular season, but I am asserting that despite their criticism, they do provide a unique form of entertainment. While the do-or-die mentality of a regular season game is posted clear for all to see on the scoreboard, this aspect of the preseason exists subtly in the individual performances of lesser-known athletes during the games' second halves. So if you're as excited about the start of another football season as I am, don't lament the month of August and think of the NFL preseason as an annual inconvenience for separating you from the first kickoff. Instead, sit back and enjoy the preseason games for their many intricacies. You never know - the quarterback your team drafted in the late rounds who leads a seemingly meaningless fourth quarter comeback in a preseason game could one day be one of the NFL's biggest stars (i.e. Tom Brady).