There was a lot of ugly football played in the NFL in Week 1.

There’s an easy explanation for that.

No one plays in the preseason anymore.

Teams are so concerned about getting their $100 million quarterback injured that he spends the bulk of the preseason in street clothes on the sidelines watching through dull, bored eyes.

Teams are so concerned about starters losing time because of high ankle sprains and separated shoulders and pulled hamstrings in the preseason that they spend a month basically idle while backups to backups bang their heads together during awful exhibition games.

It serves no one. Not the coaches. Not the players. And certainly not the fans.

And it actually leads to more injuries when the season begins.

There were a plethora of muscle pulls and sprains and cramps in Week 1 simply because players hadn’t seen any meaningful action since January.

Most of the games were painful to watch.

It should get better now as teams are back to their normal routine and players are finally getting real game action.

But the NFL is in crisis, and it isn’t all because of concussions and anthem kneels.

It’s because they are legislating the football out of football.

Teams are limited already in how long and how frequently they can practice. Players aren’t participating in preseason games. There’s no continuity when the season starts.

One team was in mid-season form, however.

The officials.

I think some of them probably had sore arms Tuesday from all the flags they threw.

Part of the reason for the flag frenzy was rusty teams. Another problem is the over litigation of the game.

Officials throw way too many flags on borderline calls.

Fans don’t watch the games to see the officials. They watch to see the finest athletes in the world beat the tar out of each other — safely, of course.

The NFL needs to tone down on the holding calls in particular. I understand the penalties for head-to-head hits and hits on defenseless receivers; I can live with that.

But for the love of Hochuli, enough on the holding.

There’s an old adage that a holding penalty can be called on every play in the NFL. The officials don’t need to prove it.

It’s getting to the point where you wonder if every big play you see will be nullified by a holding penalty. That takes the fun out of the NFL.

It seems I’m not alone. Ratings are falling. The game is stagnant. Fans are getting tired of seeing the officials more than the star players.

There are no easy solutions. One, however, is to reduce the preseason to three games with a bye between the last preseason game and Week 1. Teams will be more likely to play their starters for all 60 minutes in the final exhibition game.

Then maybe Week 1 won’t be the mess it was this season.

Mike Kilroy is a staff writer for the Butler Eagle.