By STEVE KING

There’s a reason why NFL head coaches hesitate to play their starters, and other significant players, in the preseason.

They can, and sometimes do — get hurt. That sometimes causes teams to struggle. And that, in turn, can sometimes do much to cause coaches to lose their jobs.

Just ask former Browns head coach Sam Rutigliano.

It was 1984 and Rutigliano and the Browns had high hopes. Yes, quarterback Brian Sipe, who still holds most of the team’s season and career passing records, had bolted to the big money being offered by owner Donald Trump of the USFL’s New Jersey Generals in the offseason. But Rutigliano, ever the optimist, refused to panic. After all, the team had finished 9-7 the previous season and missed making the playoffs on tie-breakers, and he was confident that backup Paul McDonald could step in and take advantage of the situation by doing a good job.

He wasn’t the only one who was high on the Browns. So were a lot of the so-called experts who picked the club to win the AFC Central title.

The Browns went into their preseason finale at Philadelphia with a 1-3 record, their two losses being by one-sided margins of 17 and 18 points. The game with the Eagles, which was meaningless, was close throughout, and for some inexplicable reason, Rutigliano played a high value on winning it. As such, he had starting right tackle Cody Risien, one of the best players in the league at his position and the man who, because McDonald was left-handed, would be protecting the quarterback’s blind side, still in the game late in the fourth quarter.

Risien suffered a season-ending knee injury — and oh, yes, the Browns lost 20-19 to boot — and it was the beginning of the end for Rutigliano. With McDonald under siege from pass rushers — he was sacked a whopping 53 times that year — he struggled mightily to throw the ball. The Browns couldn’t run it very well, either.

The result was that points came at a premium for the Browns. In not being able to score, the Browns started 1-7, the last loss coming by three points at Cincinnati on a final-play field goal. Browns owner Art Modell hated to lose to Paul Brown and the Bengals more than anything, and he fired Rutigliano that night.

The moral of this story?

Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski said he will play some select starters, including quarterback Baker Mayfield, in the team’s preseason finale at Atlanta on Sunday night.

I hope he knows what he’s doing.

I like Stefanski and, along with most people, I think he has done an outstanding job in his short tenure. But I greatly disagree with this decision. I hope and pray that my fears turn out to be unwarranted.