Green Bay Packers

GM explains how HOF Game debacle could affect Packers

Published Nov. 15, 2016 2:28 p.m. ET

Dan Graf

NFL players complain – heck, everyone complains – that there are too many preseason games, but some general managers don’t see it that way.

In fact, one in particular, Green Bay Packers GM Ted Thompson, just had one taken away from his team Sunday night in the most ridiculous way, and he told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that the extra chance to evaluate players in the Hall of Fame Game will be missed.

What’s more interesting than Thompson’s five-is-better-than-four answer is what he gets out of a preseason game that helps him trim his roster down to size.

And this is a man whose team’s 2015 season was irreparably altered by Jordy Nelson’s torn ACL in a meaningless August game. Reasons to hate the preseason are abundant for players and fans forking out full price for tickets, but an NFL general manager is neither of those things.