The Pro Bowl Is What It Is, and That’s Okay

All-Star games in professional sports are some of the most fun weeks or weekends in sports. For many leagues it’s a break from the long, grinding season and a chance for the best of the best to come together and show their stuff.

Whether it’s the NBA, the MLB or even the NHL, there’s always quite the build up to the festivities surrounding these All-Star contests. The Home Run Derby, the Dunk Contest, and the 3-on-3 tournament are all huge crowd pleasers among fans.

Then there’s the NFL Pro Bowl. The ugly duckling of All-Star games, if you will.

For years it’s been the most highly scrutinized game of the four major sports, and for good reason.

Ever since its beginning in 1951, the Pro Bowl has tried a myriad of ways to spruce up the game and draw greater interest from fans. Whether it’s the gimmicks of playing in Hawaii or trying out a fantasy draft style selection process, nothing has worked enough to make the game more than a glorified flag football game.

And that’s perfectly okay.

Unlike the other four major sports, football is on another level of physicality. That’s not to say that hockey or basketball aren’t physically demanding sports in their own right. They just aren’t on the same level as football. Having the top athletes in a sport which revolves around brutal takedowns and hits, playing a bonus game for essentially nothing just isn’t feasible.

Participants in the Pro Bowl receive a nice cash bonus just for being there and, sometimes for winning the game, and even some players have incentive laden contracts with Pro Bowl bonuses included. But with the risk of injury and the lack of real meaning behind the game, there isn’t too much you can expect.

In recent years, the game has become essentially a joke. Players suited up, but treated it like a glorified walk through. And again, can you really blame the players or the NFL for that?

Barring some ridiculous six or seven figure bonuses, there is truly nothing else that can make this game become any better than it is.

But why does it even need to be better? Sure — who wouldn’t love to see a defensive front with Von Miller and J.J. Watt take on an offense with Drew Brees and Ezekiel Elliot in the backfield? But anyone expecting that to happen with player’s going full force is delusional.

These players just spent 17 weeks, sometimes more, grinding it out in the hopes to reach the Super Bowl to no avail. Why can’t we let them have some fun and reap the benefits of their successful season?

This year, the league decided to shake up the game in a few ways. For starters, they ditched the horridness that was the non-conferenced fantasy draft style that saw players from the same organization play against each other. Then they moved the game to Orlando, Florida to draw larger crowds. The best addition to the Pro Bowl week, however, was the skills competition.

This is an area where the NFL needs to expand. The suggestions of having the game itself played as flag football would be doing too much. But adding a game like that to the skills challenge would go a long way in drumming up interest for the week. Having it all commentated by the great Jon Gruden is just a bonus!

The changes this year have been a major plus. But they shouldn’t stop there. Add the flag football and expand on the skills challenge. Pair quarterbacks and receivers up for some sort of throwing-catching competition, have a relay race with the defensive guys and, honestly, a dance-off with the likes of Travis Kelce, Antonio Brown, and Marquette King would be must-see TV.

Playing the game in Orlando is another change the league should stick with, as it keeps it continental (sorry Hawaii) and gives the week itself a far greater chance of drawing a crowd.

By doing these things, not only could the game draw some real buzz; it could also get more of the initial players selected to show up and make it a real best of the best competition.

There’s no fool proof way to “fix” the Pro Bowl. Players are tired and don’t want to get hurt. And there’s no way to make it more meaningful for the season. It’ll always be what it is, but with the promise of this year’s festivities and a few more fun additions, that’s A-Okay.