These days preseason or exhibition games do little more than give teams another team to hit, give the young kids a chance to play some professional football, and pretty much piss off fans that have to pay full price for what many consider little more than a dress rehearsal. There was a time when exhibition games served a much greater purpose. In the early days of the league, exhibition games kept some teams afloat. Some exhibition games even kept the young league alive. The Red Grange-led Chicago Bears went on a barn-storming tour following the 1925 season that put the NFL on the sporting map. Grange and the Bears brought money and attention from games that didn't really matter. The only numbers that counted were the fans and their dollars. These early exhibition games nearly brought about the first international game involving a professional team. On January 1, 1923, the Oorang Indians had a game scheduled in Havana, Cuba against a local Cuban All-Star team. The game was scheduled but there is no evidence that it was ever played. From the late 1940s through the 1960s, there were several exhibition games played in Canada. Most matched an NFL team against a CFL team. On a few occasions, two NFL teams traveled north of the border to play a game at a neutral, Canadian site. In 1976, the St. Louis Cardinals and San Diego Chargers played in Tokyo. Starting in the 1980s, the NFL has served up a fairly steady diet of exhibition games played in faraway cities. It was the first attempts at spreading the NFL shield to international markets. From 1989-2005, Japan was a destination for a couple of teams nearly every year. London got a bunch of exhibition games through the 1990s. Now, regular season games are played there. Mexico City has hosted several games. Barcelona, Gothenburg, Sweden, Berlin and Dublin have all hosted at least one game. The NFL has also scheduled neutral-site exhibition games at less exotic locales. When the league was looking into expansion in the 1960s, teams often played exhibition games in U.S. cities with no NFL team. These were usually cities that hoped to have an NFL team. New Orleans before they got the Saints. Atlanta before they got the Falcons. Tampa before they got the Buccaneers. Seattle before they got the Seahawks. Charlotte before they got the Panthers. Some cities hosted exhibition games but never got the NFL team that they may have desired. Portland, Salt Lake City, Cedar Rapids, Tulsa, Omaha, Sioux Falls. Well, Sioux Falls probably didn't have very high hopes. They just enjoyed the prospect of hosting an NFL football game. Even an NFL exhibition football game.
Basically, there was a time when exhibition games had a much greater purpose than they hold now.
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