I went to the Hall of Fame Game Sunday night. Yes, I am painfully aware it did not actually happen. But I was there, hoping to run into Brett Favre in the beer line and get him to autograph my jersey. And I figured, even if the starters put in cameo appearances at best, it's football.

Since the game got cancelled, I'm feeling a little less charitable than I was a couple of days ago. But regardless, I do like to watch these games. And I'm in the minority in that regard.

You see a lot of derision and complaining about them. And I understand, because the games are usually pretty far removed from real NFL games. When they actually happen.

Part of the hostility is the NFL's fault, since they charge season ticket holders as much for tickets for August games as they do for regular-season contests. Then teams, also understandably, barely play their stars in the games because they don't want them to get hurt.

Not only do important players get hurt, but third- and fourth-stringers who will be cut next month put up the best numbers. And we quickly begin seeing signs that our Fantasy Index Open entries are going to be torpedoed by coaches who love committees and so forth.

But I think all the complaints about the exhibitions miss the real positives of these games.

Statistics, although we love them here, are only part of the story with each NFL player. YouTube highlights are only part of the story. Both tell you what players did in the past. They can't tell you what players are doing right now. They don't always indicate what players will do.

Most of us who saw Randy Moss in his breakout exhibition performance remember it. Chris Johnson stood out in the preseason. Giovani Bernard, Alfred Morris, Ameer Abdullah. That first preseason game can sometimes tell you if it's a player you want to target, or let someone else waste a pick on.

Obviously, there's not always that kind of wow moment. Some rookies don't play much in the preseason, some are slow picking up the playbook, some are hurt. Sometimes you get a negative impression of a player who ends up being a breakout star. Sometimes (like with Abdullah) he doesn't live up to his first impression (yet).

But I'm a firm believer that what you see is more important than what you read or hear. I trust what Ian Allan says about a player and like to read what a respected beat reporter says about him. But I put the most faith in what my eyes tell me. When I see a guy zipping through defenders like he's the fastest and most motivated player on the field, I believe. When I see a guy dancing around in the backfield, dropping passes, or turning the wrong way and letting a ball bounce off his facemask, I doubt.

Thursday night there are six preseason games. I'll be watching. Friday, five more. Saturday, another four. I want to see as much as I can.

The games don't count, the numbers don't matter. But the performances do. The way players look to me do. Sometimes I'll be misled, sometimes I'll be wrong. But at least I can say I made my decisions based on what I saw. Not what somebody else saw.