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Some things happen naturally. Some thing don’t. Sometimes, that doesn’t keep people from continuing to try to make those things happen.
For the NFL, which enjoys more organic tentpoles events than any other American sport, the effort to force the launch of training camp into another one continues.
Two years ago, the league unveiled “Back Together Saturday” for the first weekend of training camp. Now, “Back Together Saturday” has become “Training Camp Back Together Weekend Presented by YouTube.”
The league created the event in 2021, hoping to create excitement and interest around the launch of training camp. The problem is that, while camp might be open, nothing is really happening. For 2023, all but two teams (the Jets and Browns) will still be in the acclimation period, which means there won’t be any actual football practice happening that weekend.
But it’s the only weekend to do it, because it’s one weekend before the more natural tentpole event in Canton, when new busts are added to the Hall of Fame and the first football game of the year is played.
As an outlet that covers the NFL, we hope the thing with the name that keeps getting longer eventually becomes a true destination event that creates something out of nothing and generates widespread interest. But if the NFL is looking to pitch a new major tentpole, our suggestion would be to ditch the forced effort to make the launch of training camp into an event and embrace a draft lottery.