Is anyone really excited for the NFL Pro Bowl?
Anyone? Anyone at all?
The annual all star game between the best the NFC and AFC has to offer has certainly had its share of struggles to gain attention for some time now.
Fading attendance and less than stellar TV ratings are matched by the seemingly listless play by on the field by the very best the NFL has to offer.
For a league which prides itself on being the class of professional sports, the Pro Bowl is the nadir of the NFL season.
This was not always the case though.
At one time, the Pro Bowl was actually a competitive game. The teams actually played to win the game, and the players actually played the game close to a “normal” game speed.
Sadly, these days are far in the distance in the rear view mirror, as the game has descended into little more than a flag football game with pads, with a bizarre set of rules that make the game nearly unwatchable.
It is not as if the league has not attempted to make this game more appealing to the fans over the past several years.
The game was moved to the week before the Super Bowl, with the hopes that this would help fill the void during the two weeks between the Conference Championships and the Super Bowl.
The league also tried moving the game to the site of the Super Bowl in 2010 and playing it the week before. That didn’t last long, as the game returned to Hawaii the following year.
The truly odd idea of conducting a Pro Bowl Draft this year, with players being drafted to play and mixing conference participants, was the latest concoction to try and salvage this sad excuse of a game.
All of these ideas are nothing more than putting lipstick on this pig of a game. And it needs to be put out of its misery once and for all.
Anyone who watches football during the season knows the Pro Bowl is a sad display of the very best the league has to offer. The NFL can say the game is competitive, but it’s not. You know it, and they know it.
If the NFL insists on holding some sort of activity the week before the Super Bowl, surely they can come up with something better than the Pro Bowl.
How about a skills competition between the players?
Or an actual flag football game, played in the sand on one of the numerous Hawaii beaches?
What about a player’s surfing competition? That would be fun to watch.
Anything would be better than the Pro Bowl.
Players could still be named to the Pro Bowl, so they may receive any roster bonuses associated with this honor and add it to their resume. But there is no reason at all that this game still needs to be played.
None at all.
Pro Bowl? More like Pro Bore. It is sad, but it’s also the truth.
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John Rehor is a writer at PackersTalk.com.
He can also be heard as one of the Co-Hosts of Cheesehead Radio. ---------------------
1 response to “The NFL Pro Bowl-Please Make It Stop”
This is by far the worst pro bowl ive ever seen and I have been watching for over 15 years! What was wrong with playing the AFC vs. the NFC? This game has been changed so many times that no one even wants to watch it anymore! It used to be a real competition, but know it is just a joke that no one wants to watch. I used to look forward to this game but now its just a joke! The NFL needs to get rid of this game of flag football and just play the regular season and the playoffs. This game is just ridiculous and offensive to all viewers. I really enjoy football, but how much is the format of the game going to change and how many times will it be changed? This is just stupid! My 8 year old son gets to play harder then the teams present at the pro bowl. The players deserve better as do the fans. I wont be watching this **** anymore!