Just Get Rid of the Pro Bowl

The Pro Bowl is the one moment in the calendar year in which nobody cares about the NFL.  It's the all-star game of the country's most violent sport, and its most popular.

But the game itself?  It's boring.

It's boring because, until a decision today to make it "during the season", the game has always been played after the Super Bowl.  It's boring because the best players often find ways to bow out.  It's boring because once the biggest championship event is over, this game hardly provides a worthy encore.  

It's so anti-climactic.  Everyone always makes such a fuss about who gets voted in, and then nobody watches the game itself.

So the NFL's solution is to make it the week before the Super Bowl.  Brilliant.

With this decision, the league plans to hold the Pro Bowl the week between the league championships and the Super Bowl.  This means that beginning January 31, 2010, the game will be held wherever the Super Bowl is.  In 2010, the game will be played in Miami.

It's a feeble attempt at reviving an already inferior NFL product.  I say, just get rid of the game entirely.

The NFL doesn't need an all-star game.  It's already the most popular league in America, thanks to it's schedule, its marketing, and its gambling interest.  It grosses a ton of money annually.  And, its all-star game lacks the tradition of baseball's, the NBA's, or the NHL's.

Honestly, would anyone miss the Pro Bowl if it ceased to exist?

Just award the players with an All-Pro honor, and create each year's Pro Bowl team.  That way, the players can still add the accolades to their resumes, and their hall of fame plaques.  They don't need to play the game to validate the honor.  

The players don't care about the game, and they don't watch it.  The fans only care when the rosters are announced, and then by the time the game comes around they don't care to watch it.  The list provides discussion.  The list honors the players that have had superb seasons.

Just forget the game.  The NFL doesn't need it.