I look around at other professional sports "All-Star" games. The MLB has the All-Star game and the Home Run Derby. The NBA has All-Star weekend, the Slam Dunk contest, and the 3-point shooting contest. NHL has followed suit with actual games and strong competitions. These are big-time events that people get excited about. Sure, the Pro Bowl is an event technically. It just seems that fans aren't as enthusiastic about the Pro Bowl as MLB or NBA all-star games. Even Keyshawn Johnston said during a discussion with Richard Sherman, "The Pro Bowl isn't worth what it used to be" when discussing the greatness of a player's resume.
I love watching the Home Run Derby and the All-Star games of the NBA, so where is the disconnect with the Pro Bowl?
For one, fans vote on it, which makes the game saturated with the bias of armchair coaches who know next to nothing about the game. Two, the players of major metropolitan cities like Los Angeles or Dallas always have an advantage. Three, name recognition always seems to win or pure talent or success in the season. Jalen Ramsey made the Pro Bowl this year, and he didn't start his season until week 9. That's not even the worst example of this. Tyler Huntley made the Pro Bowl as a backup who threw 2 touchdowns...TOTAL ON THE SEASON!... MAKE IT MAKE SENSE!
Let's not even bring up all the players that get "All-Pro" nods but snubbed on the Pro Bowl. I got your back, Amon Ra St. Brown (why didn't the Chiefs draft you?!)
Another reason is that the Pro Bowl is played one week before the Super Bowl. A completely useless game that nobody cares about is played one week before the biggest game takes place. The best players don't get to play because they're playing in the Super Bowl. The NFL rewards people who lost with a free trip to Vegas, Hawaii, or wherever they designate the Pro Bowl that year. In all fairness, I'm not sure what a good time to play this game would be. Would it be summer? Would it be a month after the season? There are pros and cons to so many ideas. All I know is when the game is happening is the completely wrong time for it to be happening. IT'S ONE WEEK BEFORE THE SUPER BOWL!
NFL, if you want people to care at all about this, you need to do two things. Put some stakes on it. More dollars go to charity for the winner. They have some donation markers/challenges in the flag football game, but come up with more. Second, come up with more games that are football-related. "The Best Catch" is good, but this year the players are playing Dodgeball, Tug-of-war, and closest to the pin (golf). Hopefully, Tiger Woods doesn't make the Pro Bowl. Sadly, that wouldn't surprise me because Tiger Woods deserves to go to the Pro Bowl almost as much as Tyler Huntley did.
How about a classic Pro Bowl? Players from the past taking part. Satisfying the nostalgia of the past greatness. Seeing Ray Lewis, Emmitt Smith, or any of the countless Greats of yesterday playing is something that they can still do.
That might help and it may not. Maybe the Pro Bowl games aren't fixable. We saw what playing what playing an actual game of football did. None of the players cared. Maybe there's nothing the NFL can do to make this any better than it is already. Maybe we should just accept the fact that the Pro Bowl is a joke that makes the two weeks to Super Bowl Sunday feel twice as long. All I know is...Super Bowl Sunday can't get here soon enough.
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