As I write these words, the NFC is shellacking the AFC in the 2013 Pro Bowl. The Pro Bowl is the annual “All-Star Game” of the NFL. The only problem is that everybody wants to make the Pro Bowl, but nobody wants to play in it. The other problem is nobody wants to watch it; I looked up that score on NFL.com. Another problem is player selection. The players are selected as the best at their position by fans and coaches, except when they’re merely household names that may or may not have had their best years behind them. I’m looking at you, Jeff Saturday.
Jeff Saturday admitted that he probably wasn’t the best choice to be the starter for the NFC in the Pro Bowl, or that he was even a Pro Bowl caliber Center. His coaches agree that he may not be a Pro Bowl caliber player, mostly because he was benched in December by the Packers. Saturday is the poster boy for the main issues with fan voting in these events. In theory, the fans would vote in the exciting, deserving players. In theory, if they don’t know how to vote for a position, they vote by name. Jeff Saturday is the closest a center in the NFL comes to a household name; he was Peyton Manning’s center in Indianapolis from Peyton’s sophomore year until Manning left for Denver and Saturday left for Green Bay after last season. Manning loved him, and they worked very well together. As Peyton’s star rose, so did Saturday’s. He made the Pro Bowl many times on these merits, including this year. However, this year he did not deserve it. He was voted in by fans because nobody knows the name of most lineman because generally lineman are seen, but not known, unless they are really, really bad.
According to NFL.com, Jeff Saturday both announced his retirement would come at the end of the Pro Bowl and he switched sides from the NFC to the AFC to defend Peyton’s hide one last time. A heartwarming end to a career, but one that should have ended with the Packers’ elimination in the Divisional game against San Francisco.
The only problem with this is that Jeff Saturday isn’t very good anymore. He led the Packers Offensive Line to giving up the most sacks in the league this year, after spending his entire career with Peyton Manning behind him, who almost never gets sacked (Manning was first in lowest sack percentage in 2010 and 2009, according to pro-football-reference.com).
I reloaded NFL.com; it’s 52-21. Blech.
Outside of players who are voted in not being deserved, players who actually deserve to go have no interest in going. As the rules go, a player must be medically barred from playing in the Pro Bowl, but the sheer number of players who get medically cleared from playing is staggering. From a quick glance, there are 33 players in the Pro Bowl this year are replacements—this is including all three NFC Quarterbacks on the roster. Granted, this is skewed as the 49ers are playing in the Super Bowl, and as such, their league leading nine Pro Bowl players are ineligible to go to Hawaii. The most obnoxious are the players who played a week ago, or two weeks ago and did not get hurt. For example, Aaron Rodgers, Tony Gonzalez, Tom Brady, Wes Welker and Vince Wilfork all looked fine last week (or in the case of Rodgers, the week before). I doubt they would be out of the Super Bowl next week if it came to it. However, they are able to exploit a “loophole” of sorts. This loophole is that every NFL player is beat up and nursing some sort of injury at the end of the season. They don’t want to take the potential hit to end their career, or delay the start of the next season, so they get their Pro Bowl bonus from their contract, opt out medically, and skip the trip to Hawaii. The players that do go are honored to be there, but they do not perform up to snuff. The rules prevent any sort of serious interaction at the line of scrimmage, where traditional football games are won and lost. The level of competition is laughable.
What is to be done with the Pro Bowl? People watch, so it is unlikely that any effort will be made to change the product, despite the sabre rattling to the contrary. The best possible scenario would be turning the Pro Bowl into a weekend event, much like the NBA does with All-Star Weekend and MLB does with the Home Run Derby, the futures game (minor leaguers to watch) and the celebrity softball game that surround their All-Star Game. The game itself could recognize how silly it is and become full-on seven-on-seven flag football, and embrace the schlock. It would be great to see a skills competition from QBs, RBs and WRs. Personally, I would love a Punt, Pass and Kick competition that exclusively features lineman. The NBA & MLB have done it right; nobody asks if we should continue having those competitions.
(62-35, what a joke).
Ultimately, I think that the Pro Bowl, in its current form, should be put to rest. People watch, but they universally recognize that it is an inferior product. If they reform it from being a fully-recognized schlock fest into a series of events with an eye on fun. It would be unfair to remove the event from Hawaiians, and it would lose the NFL and players a lot of revenue. It would be irresponsible for owners to leave the Pro Bowl money on the table, and negligent for players to not push to keep those incentives in their contract. The right move is for the league to take a look at the presentation and events surrounding the Pro Bowl, not to eliminate the event itself. Right now, it feels like the Commish has an idea of “all-or-nothing,” and it appears as though he may not be pursuing alternate avenues to modifying the Pro Bowl.
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