When did the NFL preseason truly becoming meaningless?

[CKS97]

There was once a time when preseason games didn't seem as irrelevant as they are now, when it was something other than making stadium revenue, filling in a TV timeslot, avoiding injury.

While there have been notable instances of someone making a name for themselves (Victor Cruz, Terrell Davis), such stories are few and far between mostly.

There were some famous notable preseason games where things were a little different:

In 1984, Mike Ditka and Forrest Gregg nearly got into fisticuffs.

In 1966, Kansas City ran it up against the Bears in the aftermath of Lombardi's comments following SB 1 ("I don’t think that Kansas City compares with the top teams of the NFL"): https://www.kansascity.com/sports/nfl/kansas-city-chiefs/article98200307.html

And a Jets-Giants game in 1969 was a major deal at the time: http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/football/jets/69-ny-jets-savor-super-encore-giants-inaugural-battle-bragging-rights-article-1.995230

Heck, there was a preseason fight in 1986:

 

 

But those days are long gone.

 

At what point did preseason games go from something tangible to the biggest non-event in football?

[Thomas5737]

Thursday, May 14th 1987.