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As far as preparing for the regular season, MLB has spring training.  The NFL and the NBA have preseasons, and so on.  For many years the teams in the NFL that start the season the fastest have an opportunity to build up a won-loss record cushion that many times may be the deciding factor whether a team has the wherewithal to eventually qualify for the post-season. The conventional wisdom seems to be that if you play your star players as part of a preseason effort, and they are injured in the process the coach that made the decision has committed an unforced personnel error.  However, if the team gets off to a slow start and the “starters” must exert twice the amount of energy just to “get up to speed,” they now must make up ground because they were not in “game shape.”

Recently, Mark Kaboly of The Athletic posted an article titled; ‘Steelers’ Mike Tomlin will play starters in the preseason finale. Is it worth it?’ The article expressed the opinion of Mr. Kaboly regarding the decision of Coach Tomlin to start a few selected first-teamers in “insignificant” preseason games. Kaboly writes “Left guard Isaac Seumalo has already played more preseason snaps in two games with the Pittsburgh Steelers under Mike Tomlin than he did over the previous three years combined with the Philadelphia Eagles under Doug Pederson and Nick Sirianni. That number will grow substantially Thursday in Atlanta when the Steelers close out the preseason against the Falcons. Tomlin said he will play all healthy starters — even the 29-year-old Seumalo, who has missed 21 games over the past three seasons due to injuries and has only twice in his seven-year career played a full season.”

The concerns of Mr. Kaboly as well as other writers and fans of the Steeler Nation regarding possible injury are legitimate.  However, Mike Tomlins concerns about his players not being in game shape when the season begins are just as, if not more legitimate as well.   Tomlin recently spoke with Bob Labriola on steelers.com and said the following: “If you’re going to box you need to spar, that’s the reality of it all, and on Sept. 11, we have a boxing match, and so today is our last opportunity to spar. We’re going to get some rounds in if you will, to make sure that we’re fight-ready. I’m just a firm believer in that.” Therein lies the possibility that the Steelers may experience an unnecessary injury by allowing a top-tier player to participate during the preseason.  However, when you flip the coin, similar injuries may also occur when a player is pressured to “overperform” because of the team falling behind in the won-loss standings because certain performers were not “ready for prime time.” Most of the time a scared man or woman will be lonely, desolate, and isolated from everyone and everything except their fears which they welcome with open arms every evening at the crack of dusk. The same ritual is repeated as they wake up rubbing their eyes at sunrise, trying again to convince themselves and everyone around them that the night before, the moonlit tide rolled in removed, and washed away their ingrained fears of risk and reward. It is then and only then that they realize that they were only afraid of themselves because they only had to listen to the warning that Franklin Delano Roosevelt issued almost a century ago telling them that: “There is nothing to fear but fear itself.” The smile that is on our face when it is pitch black, is ten times brighter in the light.

"Sparring Partners"