The National Football League continued its last ditch efforts to save the Pro Bowl. Sports analysts and fans alike have made a mockery of the NFL’s all-star festivities, and rightfully so. Most of the aspects of football that NFL fans have come to love since the league’s inception in 1920 are virtually non-existent during Pro Bowl competition. While fans have been accustomed to big hits and crazy catches during the regular season and playoffs, you could find no such action at Aloha Stadium on Sunday night. In fact, the best part of the entire event seems to be its location: Hawaii.
The NFL has been trying to revamp the game after its ratings have increasingly dropped over the last few years. To attract new viewers, the league moved the game from the week after the Super Bowl to the week before in hopes that the off-week would enhance viewer ratings. The switch did very little for the game, other than take many of the league’s best players out of it. With the game’s being moved to the week before the big game, many of the league’s top athletes were left off the Pro Bowl rosters because they were preparing for a championship. Without some of the league’s top performers, viewers were even less likely to tune in.
The NFL also decided to change the teams that would battle against one another. For the first time in Pro Bowl history, the game did not pit the National Football Conference against the American Football Conference. Instead of an NFC vs. AFC battle, the league decided to have a fantasy draft to select the two teams. To do so, the NFL got Hall of Famers Deion Sanders and Jerry Rice to choose and coach their respective teams. This all-star selection became popular when the National Hockey League introduced it in 2011. The fantasy draft allowed viewers to not only watch the game, but also the draft itself. In retrospect, the draft had as much hitting as the actual game did.
The league even had new uniforms created with new, flashy colors to appeal to a younger audience. While the jerseys were unique, they really did not enhance the game in the end.
This change in format, while creating new energy to a virtually meaningless game, did not increase the play on the field. With nothing really on the line, many players did not make much effort when it came to tackling or defense.
With the lack of real interest in the game, the NFL should look to fully revamp the entire concept of the Pro Bowl and all-star weekend.
The lack of tackling is understandable. Football is one of the only sports where contact is necessary in all games. This is a large factor as to why many fans lack interest in the game. So if the game that fans have come to love isn’t going to happen, why not change the style of game altogether?
The NFL changed the game from a full-contact event to a flag football tournament and position competition. Who would love seeing a competition to see who would win a 40-yard dash against LeSean McCoy and Jamaal Charles, or to see if Cam Newton or Colin Kapernick had the strongest arm in a longest-yard toss?
This is something that football fans would like to see and, in turn, the NFL gets what it really wants … viewers.
