Brad Cesmat
26 penalties…
I just finished zipping through the broadcast of the marathon preseason scrimmage between the Cardinals and Chargers. Thank goodness for technology, I didn’t have to sit through 26 penalties in real-time.
Josh Rosen did some good things when the snap made it up to him. He could’ve played shortstop for the Diamondbacks with the number of short hops he had to deal with, but this is why there’s a month of these games that don’t count. 26 penalties…
On a serious note, the League is clearly struggling with how to officiate the helmet to helmet rule change. No different from the NBA the first few weeks calling every hand check, and then reverting back to how the game was played in the past. I don’t know how many weeks it’s going to take for officials to figure out how to call it or swallow the whistle. I do know that 26 penalties isn’t what a paying fan base wants to see in the regular season, which opens(thanks goodness) on September 9th vs Washington…
I dropped in on the Arizona State scrimmage Saturday night. It had its moments of slog too. But, that’s to be expected when it’s teammates going at each other again and again. Manny Wilkins had some words of wisdom when I asked him afterwards what he likes best about this team three weeks before the season opener, 
“Just don’t talk a lot, I mean we jab at each other on the field, but you know we’re not on twitter talking about what we are going to do. We’re not boasting about practice, posting practice film, that’s what people who are insecure do, they want people to “Look at Me” type of thing.”
N’Keal Harry(pictured here) told me a short time later “we just think about working. We’re trying to get to that point where we are just a dominant team. we just need to put it all together” Harry was the last one off the field, making sure he signed every autograph. Good to see…
Before the ASU scrimmage I went to the first half of the Rising FC vs against O.C. FC . Rising lost the match 4-3, but I thought they won the night with the fan base. On a night where the Cardinals had a preseason game, Arizona State had a good crowd for their scrimmage, Rising FC had a more than respectable showing by the faithful. It will be interesting to see how attendance looks for games towards the end of the season as they get ready for playoffs…
Plan ahead for the week of October 15th. Suns season opener v Dallas October 17th, Cardinals host Denver and Arizona State hosts Stanford on October 18th. Rising FC playoff opener Ocotber 19th or 20th. Like I’ve always said, it’s great to be living in the busiest sports market in America…
