All 32 National Football League teams set their 2007 rosters over the weekend.

A flurry of activity saw moves including waivers, physically unable to perform, injured reserve, trade talk, and unsigned free agents going here or there.

What it all amounts to is that a team’s roster is always something that must be viewed in the present only.

There are always improvements and updates to rosters, due to a variety of factors including but not limited to injury and available players with varying skill levels.

Even when it appears set, outside factors enter into play.

A player gets hurt, or an existing injury does not get better, and a change is made.

A veteran player gets just a step slower, a little heavier, or is just surpassed by a young prospect.  And a change is made.

A young prospect just does not continue his training-camp promise, and his performance levels off or diminishes, and a change is made.

Teams are made for the “now.”

And each season’s team is not only the team for that season, but for that week.

The bottom line is that head coaches and personnel executives are continuously looking to make their respective teams better to win this week’s game, and the roster has to be viewed in the context of that one week.

There is naturally a great deal of excitement over who made it and who didn’t, but the careers are not over for those who didn’t, and there are precious few guarantees for those on the roster.

The only guarantee a player has is the same one each of us has when a new day dawns:  he has the opportunity to study, prepare, and perform in a manner which guarantees another tomorrow.

That’s no reason for anyone to temper excitement over the roster, but we have to remember a saying by the philosopher Hericlitis, who wrote, “No man can step in the same river twice.  The second time, the man is not the same, and neither is the river.”

Each week in the NFL is different too, and not only are the plays and schemes adjusted slightly (or greatly) weekly, but so too are the rosters.

Tags: Philosophers, Regular Season, Roster

This entry was posted on Monday, September 3rd, 2007 at 11:14 am and is filed under Jim Saccomano. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.