How do you make it better? I been thinking: Make it more a Rookie/Soph game. Maybe select the pro bowlers. . .and they get to pick a rookie/soph on their team to play in their stead. This way the Rookies and Sophs get more money, exposure and recognition They have enough incentive to LOOK GOOD and MAKE A NAME . . more so than the veterans [if a Rook is a pro bowler he can select someone else or go himself] Let the Rookies play the 1st half and the Sophmores play the 2nd half Rocket River
That would be better than the mess they put out there. Either that or just don't have it at all. I say just announce the Pro-bowlers before the superbowl...or scrap the pro-bowl nod entirely and announce the ALL-NFL players since who gets voted to these things is a popularity contest any ways.
Something has to be done about it. The Pro Bowl is by far the worst of the pro sports All-Star games. Rookies/Sophs isn't a bad idea and quite frankly, neither is discontinuing the game altogether. Maybe instead of a game, you get all the players together in Hawaii and do an NFC/AFC skills challenge. To me, that would be more entertaining than football played at half-speed and you minimize the chances that someone gets hurt.
They should just make it a straight up skills competition like they do for college or the NBA Saturday events. It could be broken into four different events: passing, receiving, rushing, kicking. The defense could be involved in all of them. I'm particularly interested in the kicking competition. I want to see Janikowski make a 70 yarder. Playing football not at full effort is just a preposterous concept anyways.
There's really nothing they can do. No one wants to go out there and get hurt. Yes, it sucks to watch. It's always been much more about the honor and the reward than the game itself. I don't know why people actually get so mad about it. You know it's going to be played half-assed. Why get ticked?
I'd get rid of it all together. Just make a end of the season award ceremony. Invite all the "all pros" for a free trip to Hawaii/Miami/NYC/Superbowl City or whatever... Announce the DROY OROY DPOY COY MVP etc.... Do it the bye week before the Superbowl....
I say replace the Hall of Fame game with the Pro Bowl in Canton. Players, most of the time, get used sparingly during the Pro Bowl and preseason and by the time August rolls around, the fans are itching for football, any kind of football.
I kind of like this...but what's the incentive? What keeps this from being another 4th week preseason game? I don't see any true solution. No one wants anything to do with it, except the league wants to have an All Star contest like every other pro league. Even if you made it flag football, guys could and would blow out a knee, making it not worth it. They used to do a skills challenge years ago....but it was boring. Fans want to watch a real game, but players (and their agents) don't want to get hurt in a meaningless exhibition. It's just broken. And with so many guys skipping it, it's a farce.
What about combining it with the Senior Bowl? Every pro-bowler gets assigned a college senior that plays the same position to coach for a week. Then they get to send their college senior out to play for them.
Personally, I’d end it. But… it still gets ratings. I like the awards idea. I would change the rules of the game. Make it 7-on-7 or have some kind of see-saw style game. Just a different game completely. At least it’d be interesting.
Not a bad idea. Personally, I'd rather see a real flag football or skills competitions than what actually happens in the game. I love stuff like the QB challenge/skills challenge and the legends/celebrity flag football games. It would be like NBA all-star weekend, minus the actual game.
If Arian Foster blew his knee out playing for third place, I'd go tsunami on the state of Hawaii and wipe it off the map. Awards ceremony - all-pro team; end-of-year awards, complete with nominees. Then a skills competition the next day with Nike putting up a huge chunk of bills to charity - I like it.
I wouldn't. I'd love to have the opportunity to play for a top 3 finish. (You wouldn't go after Hawaii, btw, you'd go after the home team's stadium)
Duly noted. If we need you, you'll be at which Academy standing in line for your officially licensed "We're #3!!!!!" t-shirt? Collateral damage, man. There'd be a whole ton of damage wrought if Foster blew out his knee for no reason.
