Pro Bowl

[RiverDog]

Did anyone watch the Pro Bowl game? I haven't watched one for years. They used to be somewhat competitive, but from what I'm reading on various sites, this year's game was a complete farce, that it looked like flag football or something that you'd play on the beach, that players were standing around watching instead of pursuing runners. And who can blame them? With as much money that is at stake in an NFL career that's at its peak for most of those players, why subject yourself to the risk of injury?

The league needs to abolish the game. To begin with, it's not a true all star game as it doesn't include any players off the two best teams that are playing in the Super Bowl as well as others like Brady that opt out of it. I can understand the motivation for holding some type of event in order to honor the league's best players and coaches, but they need to come up with something other than a conventional football game, like a skills competition, a completely different game like golf, 3-3 basketball, or something comical, like paintball. Besides, it would be nice to see player's faces doing something without their helmets.

Comments?

[mykc14]

I watched part of it. It was pathetic. I haven't really ever watched a pro-bowl but my boys were really excited to watch it and wanted me to watch it with them. They were so mad and disappointed. They couldn't understand why they would be playing a game of football but not trying their hardest. We stopped watching after a quarter.

They do have a skills competition earlier in the week and it seems like it might be fun. They play dodgeball and do various other activities (non-QB's doing throwing competitions, etc. They do needs to do something different for the game, though or maybe just do all of the competitions instead of the game. They can have a 7-on-7 game with just the lineman or maybe one where offense plays defensive positions and defense plays offense. Also, I agree it isn't even near a true All-Star game. There were like 150 NFL players who were considered Pro-Bowlers this year (actually I don't know if that is true or what the number is 150 just sticks in my head). At any rate there are a lot of guys who make the Pro-Bowl.

[RiverDog]

I watched part of it. It was pathetic. I haven't really ever watched a pro-bowl but my boys were really excited to watch it and wanted me to watch it with them. They were so mad and disappointed. They couldn't understand why they would be playing a game of football but not trying their hardest. We stopped watching after a quarter.

They do have a skills competition earlier in the week and it seems like it might be fun. They play dodgeball and do various other activities (non-QB's doing throwing competitions, etc. They do needs to do something different for the game, though or maybe just do all of the competitions instead of the game. They can have a 7-on-7 game with just the lineman or maybe one where offense plays defensive positions and defense plays offense. Also, I agree it isn't even near a true All-Star game. There were like 150 NFL players who were considered Pro-Bowlers this year (actually I don't know if that is true or what the number is 150 just sticks in my head). At any rate there are a lot of guys who make the Pro-Bowl.

Your comments correspond with what I've been reading on various sites.

I'm not too fond of the 7 on 7 idea as I think it would just end up like what we have now. I'd rather see them go completely unconventional and experiment around some. Give the players their choice of 6-8 activities of which they have to pick three to participate in and make it like a decathlon.

[Aseahawkfan]

The Pro Bowl to me just looks like another chance for a player to get injured.

[Old but Slow]

That is one game I never watch. I may have a time or two in the past, but it not really football.

Maybe they could have a real game with kids, maybe fourteen or fifteen year olds, each paired up with a pro partner who would coach him during the week and get his picture featured when the kid is shown. Or something. Choose some talented kids, all motivated, and maybe make it flag or two-hand touch to avoid liability issues.

[RiverDog]

The Pro Bowl to me just looks like another chance for a player to get injured.

Not the way those guys play. Some people posted videos showing running backs breaking into the 2nd level and defenders just plain giving up, not even making a half hearted effort to tackle them. They're obviously there just to pick up a paycheck and to get their mugs on national TV. I heard some people say that there were some points where it looked like a walk through no pads scrimmage.

[trents]

I watched a little of it but it was so far removed from how a football game is really played that I turned it off. How can you play tackle football without allowing tackling? Much more of a farce than even an NBA All Star game. Waste of time. Just a getaway to a warm place for the players and their families.

[Hawktawk]

Have a league funded insurance policy to pay all expenses and anticipated career earnings for an injured player . Pay 100 k to every player in the winning team and 0 to the loser beyond regular compensation . Or stop . Or go down the rosters and find guys that want to hit someone and play tackle football . I swear I’d have my 62 year old butt out there if I could . What a bunch of p@ss1es.

I couldn’t do it . Left it on a bit to see Russ and he was throwing moon pilots . 7 picks overall and receivers dropping balls all day with no contact rules . That hurts the shield on the field as much as Kamura did off it . This Vegas thing is working swell

[RiverDog]

JJ Watt said this about this year's Pro Bowl:

I’ve seen walk-thrus more intense than this

And this from USAToday:

No one’s particularly interested in tackling or blocking because, well, that’s what the last 17+ games were for. The Pro Bowl, with no incentive to perform well, is more about sweating out hangovers than replicating meaningful football.

https://ftw.usatoday.com/2022/02/2022-n ... ebo-samuel

There's universal agreement throughout the entire football world, from little forums like ours to future HOF players like JJ Watt. I don't know as if I've seen this much agreement on any other subject related to football since I started watching the game. The Pro Bowl is a joke, and it needs to be boycotted.

[NorthHawk]

I had no interest in the Pro Bowl, but I did watch the Senior Bowl.
At least there we saw some competition and maybe some good players that could fit on the Seahawks.

[RiverDog]

It looks like we weren't the only ones that were disinterested in the Pro Bowl. TV ratings for last Sunday's game were the worst since 2006:

“Sunday’s Pro Bowl drew 6.69 million viewers across all platforms – marking the smallest audience for the game since 2006. Still big number for a game everyone complains about – but down from recent years. Will be interesting to see if the league considers some changes,” sports reporter Ari Meirov said.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nfl/tv ... d=msedgntp

[Hawktawk]

Considering the record year the league had this was a real departure . I’d literally have been more entertained if they had flags on . I lasted ten minutes and I’m hardcore for football. They can’t keep doing it like this .

[RiverDog]

Considering the record year the league had this was a real departure . I’d literally have been more entertained if they had flags on . I lasted ten minutes and I’m hardcore for football. They can’t keep doing it like this .

I consider myself a hardcore football enthusiast, too, but I haven't watched the Pro Bowl for a decade or longer. I would encourage everyone to boycott the event as the only way the league will entertain changes to it will be if TV ratings, the mother's milk for the league, continue to decline.

I saw a comment made that claimed that even amongst the sparse audience, that the primary reason that a majority of viewers were watching the game was gambling interests, which is likely true. But with as little effort as was being made on the field, you'd have to have your head examined if you bet any kind of money on the outcome as it's extremely unpredictable.

[NorthHawk]

I don't blame the players for not playing. They can't afford to get hurt for nothing.
It's too tough of a game to play hard for no reason.

[c_hawkbob]

Go ahead and boycott, nobody is gonna care. I watch, even if disinterestedly, unless I have something else going on. It's no big deal whether I do or I don't.

I really enjoyed going to a couple of them live in Hawaii while stationed there and I think they need to go back there permanently and back to a week after the SB. Make it a bit more of a carrot for at least the younger or first time players.

If you're really all that bent about the state of the Pro Bowl, seriously, just ignore it.

[RiverDog]

Go ahead and boycott, nobody is gonna care. I watch, even if disinterestedly, unless I have something else going on. It's no big deal whether I do or I don't.

I really enjoyed going to a couple of them live in Hawaii while stationed there and I think they need to go back there permanently and back to a week after the SB. Make it a bit more of a carrot for at least the younger or first time players.

If you're really all that bent about the state of the Pro Bowl, seriously, just ignore it.

Which I have, for at least the past 10 years. I'd rather watch Lassie reruns than that garbage.

It used to be quite different. I remember being very excited when Steve Largent played in a Pro Bowl, perhaps the first Seahawk to play in one, making it late 70's. The game was held in the LA Coliseum, but I don't remember very many other details except that it more closely resembled a real football game instead of this beach volleyball contest that it's devolved into.