The NBA All-Star Game has the dunk contest. Major League Baseball’s annual midsummer classic shows off long bombs in the home run derby.
The NFL Pro Bowl has nothing – no entertainment, no incentives and no fan support.
The game hasn’t made sense for years. Finally, it looks as like it will be removed from the NFL schedule.
I couldn’t be happier.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell must make the right move. Give the Pro Bowl a major facelift or get rid of it.
NFL football is such a popular sport because of the competitive nature of the game. Every game matters.
The Pro Bowl is the exact opposite of what the NFL is all about. The players couldn’t care less who wins and who loses a meaningless exhibition at the end of the season.
In last season’s Pro Bowl, fans at Aloha Stadium in Honolulu, Hawaii, booed the lackadaisical effort of both teams. Even players have spoken out about the less-than-serious nature of the game.
The AFC took down the NFC, 59-41, but the score hides how poor a game it really was. Both offenses combined for 1,142 yards, while both defenses must have forgotten their skills at the beach.
If there’s any hope for the Pro Bowl’s future, Goodell must make serious changes to the format.
First, the game needs to be moved from Hawaii. There’s no professional football team there. It’s like if the NBA All-Star Game was held in Alaska.
If the NFL wants to make the game a money-making venture, the games must take place in cities that house NFL teams.
From 1972-78, the game was held at numerous famous venues across the country, like Texas Stadium and The Kingdome in Seattle. If you’re a Saints fan in New Orleans, it’s a lot easier to convince you to travel to Atlanta to watch the Pro Bowl than to shell out thousands of dollars to get to Hawaii.
The 2009 Pro Bowl, played at Sun Life Stadium in Miami, had the second-highest attendance in the game’s history. Those attendance numbers should show Goodell moving to cities with NFL teams will make the Pro Bowl relevant again.
Goodell must also change the placement of the game in relation to the NFL schedule. The Pro Bowl has been played the week before the Super Bowl for the last three seasons. That isn’t ideal for players or fans.
This year, stars like New England’s Tom Brady and Wes Welker and the Giants’ Jason Pierre-Paul couldn’t participate because they had to play in the Super Bowl the next week. It’s not rewarding those players for stellar season because they’re in the league’s championship.
NFL diehards don’t want to see the intensity of the playoffs interrupted with an insignificant game. The game should be moved to the end of the season like it used to be.
There have to be incentives for the players to participate or they simply won’t show up. If Goodell can’t get players to take the Pro Bowl seriously, how will he convince fans to?
If he can’t come up with an answer to that question, the game should be done away with forever.
Micah Bedard is a 21-year-old mass communication senior from Houma. Follow him on Twitter @DardDog.
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Contact Micah Bedard at [email protected]