It’s time to admit what the Pro Bowl is. It’s just one last effort by the NFL to eke out some TV money, jersey sales and press coverage. The problem is that only works when the game is full of the NFL’s biggest stars.
This year, there’s been more ducking out than at a Washington Wizards debt-settling session. To be honest, if I was player, I’d probably decline too.
There’s nothing in it for the players. Once they’ve been named to the squad, they are technically a “Pro Bowler” and also trigger the incentives in their contract. Why waste getting injured?
And to complicate matters further, I hear talk radio hosts blasting members of the Colts and Saints for not playing. Are you kidding me? These guys have a chance to win the Superbowl and someone out there thinks they should risk an injury the week BEFORE the big game?
I understand why the NFL put the most irrelevant all-star game on earth the week before tSuperbowl Sunday. Unfortunately they’ve missed the bigger point. No one cares about the Pro Bowl. It has nothing to do with when it’s played.
In baseball, hockey and basketball, the All-Star game is the equivalent of watching the best players in the world play a pick-up version of their pro sport. It’s entertaining, fast-paced (baseball excluded) and relatively free of injuries. For this to work for the NFL, the Pro Bowl would have to be a flag football game.
The NFL needs to scrap the Pro Bowl entirely. Just award the players with the Pro Bowl honor, like they do with an All-Pro team or Gold Glove awards. If they still want to attract a big audience, why not have a skills competition in the week leading up to the Superbowl?
I would watch a series of events each day that included the NFL’s Fastest Man or the Quarterback Challenge, the LenDale White Tequila Boat Race and even some type of defensive lineman obstacle course. I would legitimately be interested in the league’s most accurate long-snapper.
Most of all, the players would love to participate, because the risk of injury is non-existent and the bragging rights could earn them all kinds of endorsements.
Please Mr. Goodell, get rid of the Pro Bowl sham and give me a chance to root for D’Brickashaw Ferguson in the Offensive Lineman Cannonball finals.
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Can you just imagine how many dark-skinned Hawaiian babies are born at the end of October every year?
I am sure the nurses working overtime every year on the birthing wards from October to Novemeber would like to scrap the Pro Bowl.