Aaron Glenn, Russell Wilson and the 'memories' of what fans consider 'meaningless' NFL preseason games

FLORHAM PARK, N.J.

 Aaron Glenn  remembers his first preseason game as a rookie cornerback   for the Jets on Aug. 13, 1994 — even though he’d rather not.

“I don’t want to really talk about it,” he said on Thursday. “It wasn’t good.”

Then, of course, he was more than happy to talk about it.

“It was against Philly,” he said. “Herschel Walker was a personal protector [for the Eagles] and I was catching punts. To see a 240-pound man just streaking down the field right at you while you are trying to catch a punt is not a pretty sight. I’ve tried to wipe that memory out of my mind.”

He couldn’t, though. More than 30 years later, he still gets the willies from that moment and probably a wide range of emotions from a dozen or more plays that took place in that contest that the rest of us have all long since forgotten.

A short drive away up at Giants camp this week, Russell Wilson demonstrated the same kind of recall from his preseason debut, a meeting between the Seahawks and the Titans on Aug. 11, 2012, in Seattle. Wilson was the third-stringer that day and entered the game at halftime. His first pass was incomplete. Then he hit two in a row. And then . . .

“I remember I hit Braylon Edwards on a go ball down the left sideline, which was a sick go ball,” Wilson said of the 39-yard heave. “He caught it. It was my first go ball in an NFL game, obviously the moon ball, for a touchdown.”

Wilson made another splash play with the Seahawks ahead by three coming out of the two-minute warning. They called a running play to the right named 18 Force — yes, Wilson remembers the name of the play — but as they broke the huddle, Wilson told receiver Charlie Martin not to come across from the left and block the safety but rather to block the cornerback right in front of him.

“I ended up faking it and pulling it because the defensive end just kept coming down and I ended up running for like a 49-yard touchdown, dove in the end zone,” Wilson said. “He pancaked his guy.”

It actually was a 32-yard touchdown run, and it helped Seattle win the game. It also boosted Wilson from a third-string third-round pick to the starting job before the preseason had ended.

The point, though, is that the important parts have stuck with him more than a dozen years later. Through two Super Bowl appearances and a championship ring, and now with his fourth team, Wilson glowed with glee as he fished those stories of teammates and situations from his cranial files.

“I remember those memories, man, I remember those memories,” he said. “You get that same thrill every time you step [between] the white lines. I still do. The love of the game, the passion for it, your teammates. It’s the best game in the world and we get to do it and I’m grateful for it every day. And those memories never leave you.”

On Saturday, Wilson and Glenn will be back on preseason fields starting another new year and opening new chapters in their careers.

Glenn and the Jets will be in Green Bay for his debut as a head coach in the NFL. Wilson will be in Buffalo for his first appearance with the Giants (although whether he will play is unclear; the Giants have yet to determine if or how much their starters will perform).

Dozens of other rookies and veterans will be experiencing a taste of the NFL, many for the first time in lives that have been pointing toward this direction for years, some possibly for the last time after decades dedicated to the sport at the expense of every other pursuit.

We like to call these preseason games “meaningless,” and maybe in the big picture they are. They don’t count in any standings. The starters are more likely to get injured than they are to gain any kind of valuable experience that will improve their skills. The play-callers will be loath to divulge any of their creativity. The stands will be half-filled. It’ll be football, but only in the most rudimentary sense of the word.

Yet for the people who are on the field, it will mean, well, everything. It will be the stuff of memories that last a lifetime. Probably not for us, but certainly for them.

This isn’t meant to guilt you, the fan, into caring about the action or outcomes of these upcoming events that definitely are more exhibitions than contests. Forcing season-ticket holders to purchase admissions to these games, as nearly all teams do, even at reduced face value prices, is close to blackmail. And in this age in which teams focus more on joint practices for their contact work and evaluations, preseason games — which once numbered six per summer (and included Herschel Walker on special teams!) before getting trimmed to four and now three — quickly are becoming archaic and figures to be reduced again as soon as the 18-game regular season comes into existence.

But you clearly love the sport enough to have read this deep into a column waxing poetic about it, so consider this a gentle reminder that what is about to take place over the coming weeks matters.

Said Glenn, who has said he will play his starters against the Packers: “Every game has meaning for me.”

Even these meaningless ones.