5 reasons NFL preseason football actually rocks

Real football!

OK, maybe “real” is overstating it when it comes to the NFL preseason. The rules will be enforced. Score will be kept, but the result doesn’t matter.

That doesn’t mean we can’t get excited, though.

Some people don’t care for it, but here are five reasons preseason football rocks:

1. Find out where players you love (or love to hate) went in the offseason. 

This is probably the most obvious, right? Hundreds of players change teams ever year – too many to keep track of, especially if you have a life outside of the NFL.

Sometimes there is nothing better than flipping on a game only to go, “Oh, THAT’S where that guy is now? ”

2. Find out where players you loved in college are now.

We live in a fragmented world. Some people prefer college while others are NFL junkies only. I’m surprised sometimes how little crossover there is between the two.

As far as I’m concerned, football is football, but if you are a college fan with time to kill, checking out where last year’s stars are now is always fun.

And then there are those 2012 All-Americans still trying to hang on…

3. Find out who your next favorite player will be. 

Everybody loves an underdog, right?

The NFL preseason is ripe with them. I mean there are literally too many to count on every team.

From the national award winners trying to adjust to the small college all-stars trying to prove they belong, there is drama across the board no matter who is playing.

4. Scout for your fantasy team. 

If this weren’t more obvious, I would have put it higher on the list. I’m not a fantasy junky, but I still know one of the great joys of August is using that classically untrained scout’s eye to figure out who is going to be a steal when draft day comes around.

Nobody just gets lucky when it comes to these guys. We always see that something special, right?

5. Forget why you ever watch anything but football. 

We’ve thawed out from another winter. Dried out from spring (almost). While we’re still fighting the heat of the summer, at least there’s football to take our minds off how long the air conditioner is going to last – not to mention save us the time of going through the DVR or Netflix to find something to watch.

If you have NFL Network, you can find football on TV at almost literally any time of day for the next month.

Miss a series in the Texans-Panthers game tonight? No problem, it will come back around eventually, whether it’s while you’re eating breakfast tomorrow or winding down before bed next Monday.

And that’s a great thing -- your fantasy team might depend on it.