HOF game ticket buyers will get refunds

Associated Press

The Pro Football Hall of Fame will issue refunds to ticket buyers who went home from the NFL’s annual preseason kickoff without having watched any football.

The competitors for roster spots with the Colts and the Packers won’t get the game back, though.

“I can tell you this: Every one of those young players are upset,” Buffalo Bills coach Rex Ryan said.

After Brett Favre stole the show with a humorous, insightful and moving speech during the induction ceremony for his class on Saturday, the talk of the league turned the next night to the field. That’s because part of it was congealed, rendering the Indianapolis-Green Bay game unplayable.

The traditional exhibition in Canton, an extra preseason contest for each team and source of local pride, was canceled when NFL and team officials deemed the turf unsafe due to hardened paint and loosened rubber pellets.

Neither the Colts nor the Packers were available for comment on Monday, but both coaches expressed disappointment on Sunday night about the lost opportunity to evaluate, even though four more games remain before the regular season.

These exhibitions often become yawners for fans, with most starters standing on the sideline, but they’re serious business for the undrafted and unproven guys.

“Nothing is guaranteed in this league. Those types of games, you don’t want to miss reps, especially in game-type situations,” said New York Giants safety Cooper Taylor.

“You don’t go live in practice any more. You just can’t do that with the way the NFL has been set up.”

He was referring to the attempt to protect the health of the players in a dangerous sport, which is exactly why the game was called off.

As frustrated as the second, third and fourth-stringers must have been by the cancellation, nobody would have wanted to put bones, joints or muscles at greater risk.