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Home » NFL

Why Doesn’t the Pro Bowl Matter?

Submitted by mikeychx on February 6, 2009 – 12:06 pm42 Comments

070206_nfl_pro_bowl_logo1From a lack of posts on the blogosphere…to nary a mention on the WWL. Not a single soul I know cares about the Pro Bowl this weekend. This may actually include the participants considering how many replacements are named annually.

I haven’t watched a Pro Bowl in 20 years….The NFL All Star game is irrelevant. But Why?

Football is King in America – and this is a football game right? I alone cannot be the voice for the state of the Pro Bowl dissenters – because frankly I couldn’t come up wit a good reason to watch it…and to make matters worse – I couldn’t come up with a good reason as to why I don’t watch it.

So I asked for help. I sought out the editors and authors from Blogs all over the Country….and here is what they said

Joe Sports Fan: My best guess as to why the Pro Bowl doesn’t matter is that, by the time the NFL season has ended, the football-viewing population of America has reached its absolute saturation point when it comes to the Manning brothers.

Throw in the possibility that Archie will be interviewed on game day about how his two sons are the first pair of brothers ever to play in the game together, and I’m not going anywhere near NBC on Pro Bowl day.

Granted this may only be pertinent in 2009, but next to the threat of seeing Berman in a Hawaiian shirt it’s the primary reason I won’t be watching any coverage from Hawaii all week.

The Sports Hernia: Nobody cares about the Pro Bowl because of Rock ‘N Cock jerseys that look like this. Plus, everybody’s overcome with Buick Invitational fever!

Sparty from Sparty and Friends: The Pro Bowl? Seriously? The only time the Pro Bowl is worth watching, is when you are playing it on Madden.

The Bull Gator: The Pro Bowl doesn’t matter to me because it doesn’t count. My favorite team doesn’t get a win or loss in the standings and the season is already over. When I was younger, it was fun to watch. But over the years, I lost total interest. I’m more interested in seeing how many All-Pro teams a guy was selected to than how many Pro Bowls.

PatPhish from Sparty and Friends: The Pro Bowl doesn’t matter because of its timing. The Super Bowl is the ultimate sports climax, we build towards it for 5 months, and it is The Most Important Game in Sports. Within days of its completion we are already thinking of the next Super Bowl thus making the Pro Bowl insignificant.

Hef from Major League Jerk: Dude, I’ve never watched a single down of any Pro Bowl ever. There isn’t a single event I’ve ever cared less about.

My personal favorite came from Cousins of Ron Mexico who writes for Major League Jerk and The Big Lead…

CRM: The Super Bowl takes place in the 21st week of the season and is the NFL equivalent of the 21st birthday. In both cases there is a huge buildup, a lot of hype and eventually a big party.Is that a coincidence? No. That makes the Pro Bowl the 22nd birthday. Sure, it’s your birthday, but you’re 22 now. You’ve got to get up for work in the morning.

Speaking of The Big Lead

TBL: Because the season’s over.

Mizerle from Sparty and Friends: The Pro Bowl doesn’t matter because, just like for the other professional sports leagues, it’s an exhibition game. On top of being an exhibition, it’s held after the season finale. In terms of making the game relevant, the other pro leagues get it right by holding theirs at a mid-point in the season. The Pro Bowl needs head-to-head competitions similar to the dunk contest in the NBA and home run derby for MLB to entice viewers to stick around. Who wouldn’t want to see Tom Brady vs. Peyton Manning vs. Drew Brees vs. Eli Manning vs. Ben Roethlisberger in a passing accuracy competition? Who wouldn’t want to see T. O. vs. Randy Moss vs. Reggie Wayne vs. Steve Smith in a sprinting race or two? Stuff like that would be awesome but we’re stuck with a game that the audience knows is meaningless and the players know is meaningless.

Moondog: I’ll draw an analogy. If a beautiful chick were standing before you in all of her naked splendor, would you really be concerned about her hair color? No! It doesn’t matter what the NFLs star players do in the Pro Bowl because, well, it just doesn’t. That’s my response and I’m sticking to it. I’m MoonDog, and I approved this reply.

GatorTrey of Sparty and Friends:

Because it’s a lousy product.
Unlike baseball and basketball, football just doesn’t translate well. There is a legitimate injury threat every play. The owners, GMs, and coaches tell their players to play as little as they can if at all.
Usually 1/2 the players don’t play.
I’ve never watched more than a minute of the pro bowl.
It sucks.

BigD from Sparty and Friends: The Pro Bowl is overrated.  It’s completely irrelevant.  It’s poorly covered.  It’s usually after the most overhyped game of the year.  Many of the biggest stars opt out of it, and who can blame them?  In a sport where contracts aren’t guaranteed and injuries can happen on any given play, why would a superstar risk a mega contract to play in an exhibition game?
Not to mention, the rules are changed (No blitzes?  No stunts?  Why even play defense?).  Plus, we’re conditioned as fans to understand how important every game is during the regular season – how one game can determine whether or not your team makes the playoffs.  By the time the Pro Bowl rolls around, we’re all too tired to care.
The sheer problem is that football is too violent for any type of All-Star game.  In every other sport, the All-Star game is essentially an offensive showcase.  In the NFL, unfortunately that leaves defensive players with no reason to bother trying.
There is no way to remedy that mindset.  The Pro Bowl will always be an offensive showcase.  But if you want to improve it, try some of the following:

– Get the game the hell out of Hawaii.  Football is not meant to be played in tropical breezes while coaches wear colorful shirts and flowery leis.  Put the game in the middle of Oklahoma, smack in the center of the country and a place where the locals actually care about football.  Hell, put it in the Sooners home stadium – it can hold enough fans to make it a good environment.
– If you’re elected by the fans, you have to play the first quarter.  Seriously, unless you’re on your teams IR before the final game of your team’s season, you should be able to jog around for 15 minutes.
– Make it a bigger event.  Have skills competitions that fans can watch – QB passing skills, kickers trying weird angle kicks from long distances, defensive guys have a weightlifting or sprinting competition, etc.  I know some of these things already happen, but televise them and make them more interesting, like the NBA’s skills competition.

If you couldn’t tell, I’ve thought about this a little in the past.

These are the responses I did get….and I forwarded that email to like 20 different outlets….outlets that we link to, get linked by, and are on each others blog roll….no response.

The Pro Bowl is so irrelevant that you don’t even want to discuss it with your friends…or on a blog? Sad.

Ed Note: I sent the email out yesterday…and I foolishly waited until this morning to write this post thinking people would check their in boxes and get back to me…nope people simply do not care about the Pro Bowl.

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BallHype: hype it up!

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