Pro Bowl falls short of NFL gold standard
Jim Urso
Issue date: 2/4/10 Section: Opinion
On Sunday, something rare happened to me. As I awoke, the clock read 1:09.
If my eyes opened at this time any other Sunday over the previous five months, I would've jumped out of bed furiously scrambling for belongings and the TV remote. This Sunday marked the first since the second weekend of September without an NFL football game.
Simply put, I'm an NFL junkie. No matter how many brews I had on Saturday night, I'm up a few hours before game time to scour newspapers, make bets, talk to other football junkies, fix my fantasy football lineup and get settled in to partake in a tradition, that to me, is more sacred than most holidays.
But there was a football game on Sunday. The NFL Pro Bowl aired on ESPN at 8 p.m.
I'm an NFL junkie. But I didn't care.
And that got me to thinking. In 15 years, I'll still be a football fanatic. However, I will have a vast amount of additional responsibility in my life. If I don't care about the Pro Bowl now, I never will. And if a college student and self-proclaimed NFL junkie doesn't care about the game, a change should certainly be in order.
The intrigue of the early Pro Bowl matchups relied upon the rivalry between the AFC and the NFC. Now, there's not much separation between the leagues so the players have very little pride at stake.
It's widely accepted among players and coaches that the Pro Bowl will be less physical and less competitive. However, football is so inherently physical and violent that when you take these characteristics away, you're taking away the essence of the game.
In the 2010 Pro Bowl, nearly 40 percent of the players originally selected for the game did not play. During a commercial break of the Grammys, I switched on the game to see Vince Young. After watching Brett Favre probably lose years off his life trying to win a playoff game the week before, the last thing I want to watch is David Garrard scrambling around a backfield in which no one is really trying to tackle him. And when we look back in 20 years, will we actually consider Young and Garrard Pro Bowlers?
If my eyes opened at this time any other Sunday over the previous five months, I would've jumped out of bed furiously scrambling for belongings and the TV remote. This Sunday marked the first since the second weekend of September without an NFL football game.
Simply put, I'm an NFL junkie. No matter how many brews I had on Saturday night, I'm up a few hours before game time to scour newspapers, make bets, talk to other football junkies, fix my fantasy football lineup and get settled in to partake in a tradition, that to me, is more sacred than most holidays.
But there was a football game on Sunday. The NFL Pro Bowl aired on ESPN at 8 p.m.
I'm an NFL junkie. But I didn't care.
And that got me to thinking. In 15 years, I'll still be a football fanatic. However, I will have a vast amount of additional responsibility in my life. If I don't care about the Pro Bowl now, I never will. And if a college student and self-proclaimed NFL junkie doesn't care about the game, a change should certainly be in order.
The intrigue of the early Pro Bowl matchups relied upon the rivalry between the AFC and the NFC. Now, there's not much separation between the leagues so the players have very little pride at stake.
It's widely accepted among players and coaches that the Pro Bowl will be less physical and less competitive. However, football is so inherently physical and violent that when you take these characteristics away, you're taking away the essence of the game.
In the 2010 Pro Bowl, nearly 40 percent of the players originally selected for the game did not play. During a commercial break of the Grammys, I switched on the game to see Vince Young. After watching Brett Favre probably lose years off his life trying to win a playoff game the week before, the last thing I want to watch is David Garrard scrambling around a backfield in which no one is really trying to tackle him. And when we look back in 20 years, will we actually consider Young and Garrard Pro Bowlers?
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