I just read the NFL is moving the Pro Bowl from a week after the Super Bowl to the week before it. Also, the game will be played at the site of the Super Bowl every year instead of Honolulu. This begins in 2010, in Miami, according to the article.
Now, I’m not the biggest football fan on Earth (I root for my hometown Pats, but that’s about it), but I do have a small issue with this decision.
Okay, they said they’re moving the game because they (the NFL) hopes to reinvigorate it with the fans. I can understand that. But here’s my problem. If the game is a week before the Super Bowl, then won’t that mean the players involved in the Super Bowl be kind of automatically removed from the All-Star teams? How will that make the game any more thrilling?
Also, how fair is this to Honolulu? I mean, with all the tourism that happens in Hawaii anyway, it’s not going to be a major blow to the yearly income the city gets, but they’ll still take a loss on the move, won’t they? From what I’ve read, the Pro Bowl brings in roughly $30,000,000 that week. That’s not chump change.
All in all, I dislike this move, but for whatever reason, the NFL didn’t contact me about it. Anyway, what do you guys and girls think?
The Pro Bowl can go away as far as I am concerned. All the other All-Star games have some entertainment value to them, and the Pro Bowl is watered down too much by people not trying to make plays and worrying about injuries.
I’d be glad to see the football season retract to 14 weeks, drop 2 playoff teams, and shorten the preseason to 3 games, but you get disgusted with football after a while being a Bills fan. At least the Sabres keep it entertaining, as well as the Bandits (indoor lacrosse for those who don’t know, and indoor lacrosse is the best sport in the world - speed of hockey and the hitting of football) won the 2008 NLL Championship.
That was one thing I had read about improving the Pro Bowl. Instead of a full game, have it be like MLB or the NBA or the NHL. For example, on Thursday, have a fastest man competition and a quarterback accuracy challenge. On Friday, let the lineman do something skills related, and the receivers and backs do an obstacle course. Saturday can be a fan-oriented event, like playing catch with Peyton Manning or something like that. And then on Sunday, let the Pro Bowlers play in like a flag football game, 7-on-7 or something, like sandlot stuff.
If the NFL did that, I guarantee more Pro Bowlers that get elected to go actually go and don’t opt out of the game. Toss in the entertainment value of it, and I think the Pro Bowl could become a major part of the season. Something to look forward to instead of something only hardcore die-hard fans watch on the NFL Network.
That’s my thought. My Browns got lucky cause of some high-profile talent withdrawing from the game. Case in point Derek Anderson, Kellen Winslow, and Braylon Edwards. All players who did not deserve to be there last year. Kellen Winslow decided to act like a dick while he was in Hawaii because he thought he deserved superstar status. Bullshit-cough, bullshit… cough.
THAT was a lead story on all the Cleveland TV stations. Nothing else. It was childish. It even outled a murder of a child on most stations in the Cleveland area around last year’s Pro Bowl. Kellen Winslow can choke for all I care, his daddy was a real player. His son is just a prick. Only player who deserved it last year was my boy, Josh Cribbs.
I have the game on tape, and I think the Pro Bowl selection system is flawed. The Browns just got lucky, and yes, I am a Browns fan. To me, after relocating to Baltimore after the 1995 season, we deserve to be bottom of the barrel. We are not what we once were, and nor will we ever be. Browns fans are too spoiled.
The Pro Bowl is the biggest joke in the NFL. It has been for some time. I have a huge gut-busting laugh when I watch it whilst buzzed on cheap beer. Last year’s game I have on tape casue I worked that night, plus I was proud to have some Browns there finaly.