Kill The Pro Bowl
Literally, who would care?
This article by Huddle Up caught my eye, because it seems like a no-brainer to me.
I am a massive fan of NFL football. I’m not a massive fan of the NFL, how it operates and what motivates it (money) over what it ignores (player safety, social justice - unless they can monetize it, and so forth). But at the end of the day, I LOVE football, and absolutely would spend a Sunday morning watching a Jaguars-Falcons game (a game between two teams I don’t root for who might be the two worst teams in football in 2022).
And yet, I’ve NEVER been able to watch a Pro Bowl game. Players don’t care about it (about 20% of them decline the invitation, which leads to some really, really average players being asked to fill their spot. This leads to some players having “Pro Bowl” next to their name after incredibly not special seasons.
Last season, here are some guys who were named to the Pro Bowl:
Kirk Cousins and Mac Jones kind of tell the whole story here.
Mac Jones passed for 3801 yards, 22 TD and 13 INT. The yards and TDs are good - not spectacular - numbers in 2021, and the number of interceptions (especially given the attempts, yards and TDs) is fairly disgraceful. His QB Rating (QBR) was 50.9 - a reminder that this is a score out of a possible 100. For a rookie, these were great numbers and a sign that the Patriots might have their future signal caller, but this isn’t the stuff the Pro Bowl is supposed to be made of.
Cousins had flashier numbers - 4221 yards, 33 TD and 7 INT. That said, his QB rating was 52.3, the lowest in his career. (Cousins and Jones ranked 15th and 16th in this category which, when you remember there are 32 teams, sort of defines this performance as average.) Also, I’m not much of a believer in QB wins but the Vikings were (checks notes) NOT GOOD last year.
And how DID Mac Jones get an invite? Well, here’s the problem with the Pro Bowl. Lamar Jackson was named (and honestly, that’s fine but he really didn’t have that great of a season) and declined to play. Then, Josh Allen declined the invitation to replace Lamar Jackson. Somehow, that ended up with Mac Jones getting the AFC invite (and honestly, if Ryan Tannehill or Derek Carr had gotten the invite ahead of Jones, I’d be complaining about them too.)
In the NFC, both named starters - Aaron Rodgers and Tom Brady - declined to play. Matthew Stafford was playing in the Super Bowl the following week, so Cousins and Russell Wilson got the nods. Anyone who followed last season would tell you it was Wilson’s worst year as a pro.
When you hold an event and 20% of the invitees graciously decline the invitation, that’s not ideal. When you are trying, repeatedly, year after year, to make it a marquee event, it’s really bad.
And then, there’s the product itself - these are, after all, NFL players and most of them above average at that.
It’s terrible - or, at least, it’s not NFL football. There’s barely any tackling, they don’t kickoff - and all of that makes sense. It would be insanely stupid to get injured in a game that quite literally means nothing.
Which is why it shouldn’t exist. Kill it. Kill it dead. The above Huddle Up article has some good suggestions for replacements, and I’d vote for any - but I’d also just cancel it outright. As an example, a far more prestigious honor is being named First Team All-Pro, and nobody turns that down … because it’s just an honor. It’s recognition of a great season.
That’s all we need.