I've been wondering about the last preseason game.

1.
Do you think NFL coaches, notoriously obsessive about working long hours and watching film to gain any advantage of an opponent, even watch tape of the fourth preseason game?

I think it's possible that they watch the tape to scout their opponents' bench players. These backups may at some point become contributors (perhaps by necessity), and tape of the fourth preseason game might offer useful material on such players' tendencies. But this is pure speculation.

Any other ideas? Is there anything useful in the last preseason game that opposing coaches could find and use?

2.
How bored do you think starting players get while watching their backups play a game for three hours, when they don't even care if they win? Much of what I've read about the work regimen of professional athletes sounds very boring. But what's more boring than that? Do they stand together in groups with friends and chat? I'm actually tempted to watch some preseason games this weekend just to watch shots of the sidelines to guess what the players are doing.

Do you remember in Varsity Blues, how backup quarterback Johnny Moxson got caught reading a novel during his team's game? If during the fourth preseason game, Steve Hutchinson pulled out a book and went and sat on the bench, would Brad Childress even be mad? How about a magazine? And what magazines does Steve Hutchinson read, anyway? If I'm ever granted an interview with Steve Hutchinson for this blog, I won't waste my time with the questions anybody else would ask. I'm going to ask him questions like what magazines he likes. Maybe he'd say "Um, all of them, any of them that have been in front of me over all these years." But now I want to know what magazines the Viking players read.