[ANT7088]

Does anyone know how the PreSeason game are selected? I was curious, it seems weird that we play Denver, last year Carolina (Stephen Davis). Does it go by record or do they know that people will want to watch Portis vs. Baily?

[Warmother]

I think that since most people could care less about a preseason game, the NFL trys to match teams that will draw viewers. The Washington vs Denver game being one after the big trade.

[Irn-Bru]

I've searched online quite a bit, but haven't found any official documents pertaining to this question. Also, there isn't any mention of it in the NFL Digest of Rules on this site (which I'm assuming is the whole rulebook. . is that correct?). The fact that a) Spurrier's first year in the Redskins played that high-profile Osaka game, b) Last year they highly touted the Carolina-Skins matchup, and c) This year we have the Denver game all lead me to suspect that it's set up purely for ratings.

In the Madden series, you always just pick 4 teams that you want to play, there isn't any rhyme or reason to it unless you decide that there should be.

I'll keep searching, but there doesn't seem to be a good answer in plain view just yet. . .

[JansenFan]

According to coach Gibbs, teams can request who they play in preseason and then the league "takes that into consideration" when they make the schedule. I believe his comment was basically that teams can kind of ask to play a team and 28 teams asked to play the redskins.

Having said that, the schedule is still made by the league. The only way to get people to go to the preseason is to have some kind of story line. As a season ticket holder, I can tell you FEDEX is unbelievably empty during preseason home games (although probably still "sold out" since you have to buy preseason as part of your season tickets)