The Pro Bowl: Why???

The NFL All Star game. Everyone likes an all-star game, right? All the best players battling it out with one another. Getting to face the best of the best. The top players getting to work side-by-side with one another to make the "dream team" with no holes or weak spots. If only it could really play out that way. It is great in concept and for some sports (baseball) it can come close to working, but in football, especially at the NFL level just doesn't work.

Here are some of the biggest issues:
1) The game has no meaning. Bragging rights and a slightly bigger pay check that is completely dwarfed by your regular pay check is not a big enough incentive and I don't think that there is a way to make it bigger. The highest goal is the Lombardi and this is not a step toward that.

2) Injured/worn out bodies: This year more than any other, players are dropping out like crazy because they have injuries that they have been battling and they just don't want to put their bodies through the grind again. The game has no grand prize, so there is little to no meaning so why push?

3) Possible Injuries: Why put your body on the line for this? Why put your fellow players' career on the line and deliver a crushing blow like you would in a playoff game where the winner moves on toward the Lombardi trophy? Nobody is playing this game like their livelihood depends on it because it doesn't. In fact if you were to really hammer and injure someone, you may make enemies of player who might one day be your teammate. You are respected if you do that in the regular season, but not at the Pro Bowl. The epitome is watching a field goal try. After the ball is hiked, the linemen stand up, give each other a token push, then it almost looks like they are going to shake hands while the kick is happening. It is pretty funny and definitely NOT NFL football and the highest level.

4) You can't possibly learn to play together as a team in one or two weeks. QB/WR timing takes time to develop. How the offensive line works together takes time to develop. Defense comes together faster, but there is still a lot of communication that is just learned by having time together.

5) The NFL playbook is WAY too complex to learn in a week or two. The defense can't even blitz because there is no way for the offense to be able to learn the complex blocking schemes to be able to defend the QB. Way too much to do in a week or two.

It just isn't the best of the best squaring off in the ultimate duel. This year they moved it to the 'dead' week between playoffs and Super Bowl instead of after when nobody was thinking football anymore. It makes it a bit more likely that I'll see part of it, but no Super Bowl players will be there and lots of the playoff players are ready for a break.

I wish that I could give you ways to solve the issues, but I don't think that you really can make it what we all wish it could be. It's sad, but it is reality. It is a honor to be chosen to go. I understand that a lot of players build relationships that sometime turn into free agent signings, so there are good things that happen there. It is fun to see some of the guys play just one more game before they shut it down for the year, but it just isn't NFL football.

I have one wild hair idea. Not sure if I even really like it, but it is fun to just throw it out there. The week before the Super Bowl have an all star game for guys whose teams didn't make the play-offs. There are great players on those teams that didn't get there. They will have had a month for bodies to recover and work together. Pay them well and double it for winning. I know, it's not the best of the best at all positions, but it is at some and you have excellent players on both sides of the ball. Some will be players that you might not hear about quite as often, but most you will. This year would have these players among others.

Offense:
Matt Schaub, Ben Roethlisberger
Chris Johnson, DeAngelo Williams, Steven Jackson, Maurice Jones-Drew
Chad OchoCinco, Andre Johnson, Santonio Holmes, Steve Smith(s), T.J. Houshmandzadeh Tony Gonzalez, Vernon Davis

Defense:
Elvis Dumervil, LaMarr Woodley, Brian Orakpo, Patrick Willis, London Fletcher, Barrett Ruud, Jairus Byrd, Nnamdi

Those are players that I would enjoy watching especially if they were really going for it.