# New NFL Pro Bowl Format--Does Anyone Care? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [August 1, 2013, 7:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-nfl-pro-bowl-format-does-anyone-care/665060 "2013-08-01T07:45:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2013, 7:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-nfl-pro-bowl-format-does-anyone-care/665060/1 "2013-08-01T07:45:32Z")
So the NFL has a plan to spark interest in the Pro Bowl. [Players will now be selected in a draft](http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1722896-nfl-replaces-traditional-pro-bowl-format-with-player-draft?utm_source=cnn.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=cnn-sports-bin&hpt=hp_bn15) with Jerry Rice and Deion Sanders as opposing captains. The Hall of Famers will be assisted by top fantasy football players. Really? It’s still a meaningless game, played by players who mostly care about not getting injured. Unless they also add naked cheerleaders, nobody is going to watch. May as well let Rice and Sanders settle it in 30 minutes with a Xbox and the latest version of Madden. OK, this is weird. There should be a link to an article in this post. It shows up in the edit screen, but not when posted…somebody forget to feed the hamsters again? ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2013, 11:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-nfl-pro-bowl-format-does-anyone-care/665060/2 "2013-08-01T11:06:59Z")
The only thing I’d watch is if they had a skills competition like they often did before the probowl. Have 4 jugs machines rapid-fire balls at receivers, have running backs go through a ninja warrior style obstacle course, have QBs throw balls through moving targets, that sort of thing. That’d be a lot of fun. Even do AFC vs NFC to make it a competition. ---
**Author:** ![Red\_Wiggler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/red_wiggler/32/13190_2.png) [@Red\_Wiggler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Wiggler)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2013, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-nfl-pro-bowl-format-does-anyone-care/665060/3 "2013-08-01T12:32:22Z")
It’s hard to get interested in an exhibition game played by disinterested participants when there are plenty of real sports on. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2013, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-nfl-pro-bowl-format-does-anyone-care/665060/4 "2013-08-01T12:51:33Z")
I’d have a hard time investing any serious emotion into the whims of Deion Sanders. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2013, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-nfl-pro-bowl-format-does-anyone-care/665060/5 "2013-08-01T13:08:05Z")
:smack: This is :rolleyes: :dubious: I still maintain that nobody in the Pro Bowl actually plays it as a real game. The chance for injury is so great, for one thing. In NHL, NBA, and even MLB, an individual player can punch it up a notch, as it were, with all the other high quality players. In NFL games… well, it just seems so different to me. YMMV of course. I actually hadn’t watched a Pro Bowl since sometime in the 90s until last year, and after watching that 2 1/2 handjob, I see it still is a completely irrelevant exercise. This new format seems more like a sports channel “reality” show than any attempt at a real game. Just take them to Hawaii and give them a variety show! Let them showcase their singing voices, their dance moves, their large calibre handgun marksmanship, their drunk driving skills. ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2013, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-nfl-pro-bowl-format-does-anyone-care/665060/6 "2013-08-01T13:08:57Z")
> [@Red\_Wiggler](#): > > when there are plenty of real sports on. In late January? I think the Pro Bowl is just a bad idea in general. Football is too high risk for an exhibition game. I think the skills competitions are far more interesting, and I have fond memories of the Quarterback Challenges of years past. It seemed like the participants were pretty competitive in those - moreso than in the Pro Bowl itself. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2013, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-nfl-pro-bowl-format-does-anyone-care/665060/7 "2013-08-01T13:11:11Z")
> [@Munch](#): > > In late January? > > I think the Pro Bowl is just a bad idea in general. Football is too high risk for an exhibition game. I think the skills competitions are far more interesting, and I have fond memories of the Quarterback Challenges of years past. It seemed like the participants were pretty competitive in those - moreso than in the Pro Bowl itself. X Games! Those are actually Feb, tho, I think. And kind of fun to watch. Good point about the challenges. Those are fun. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2013, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-nfl-pro-bowl-format-does-anyone-care/665060/8 "2013-08-01T13:14:25Z")
There once lived a man who played in the Pro Bowl [like it was just another game](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPiZjUf9TcQ)… ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2013, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-nfl-pro-bowl-format-does-anyone-care/665060/9 "2013-08-01T13:33:13Z")
You had me at naked cheerleaders. ---
**Author:** ![Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/intergalactic_gladiator/32/112_2.png) [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intergalactic_Gladiator)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2013, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-nfl-pro-bowl-format-does-anyone-care/665060/10 "2013-08-01T14:01:45Z")
Ugh… Here’s the tough part about the Pro Bowl, how do you celebrate and reward the league’s best players? There’s a precedent set in all sports for an all start game but when player’s career’s are on the line with a moderately souped up exhibition game nobody wants to do it. Skills competition is nice, but it’s not a _game_. How do you fix it? I don’t know if it’s fixable. Can you do flag football and have the players and fans still satisfied? The other big issue with the Pro Bowl is that a long snapper doesn’t get voted to it. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2013, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-nfl-pro-bowl-format-does-anyone-care/665060/11 "2013-08-01T14:20:35Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > So the NFL has a plan to spark interest in the Pro Bowl. > > [Players will now be selected in a draft](http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1722896-nfl-replaces-traditional-pro-bowl-format-with-player-draft?utm_source=cnn.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=cnn-sports-bin&hpt=hp_bn15) with Jerry Rice and Deion Sanders as opposing captains. The Hall of Famers will be assisted by top fantasy football players. OK, this strikes me as quite odd, particularly the assistance of “top fantasy football players”. But I think we’re now just one step from the Commissioner going up to the mic, throwing up his hands and saying “we give up”. > [@NoClueBoy](#): > > I still maintain that nobody in the Pro Bowl actually plays it as a real game. The chance for injury is so great, for one thing. In NHL, NBA, and even MLB, an individual player can punch it up a notch, as it were, with all the other high quality players. In NFL games… well, it just seems so different to me. YMMV of course. Heck, even in MLB after that 2002 tie they felt they had to add an incentive to the All-Star game so that they’d seriously try to play to win. But yes, a NFL All-Star game played “for keeps” would be a much higher risk proposition given the state of gameplay (and hey, isn’t it the fans who want to see big crunching hits?). > [@Loach](#): > > You had me at naked cheerleaders. Start the game in hula outfits and lose them by halftime. It’s GOLD, Jerry, I’m telling you!!! OTOH we’d need more than the approximately 1.5 seconds per quarter the networks let the camera focus on the cheer line anymore… ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2013, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-nfl-pro-bowl-format-does-anyone-care/665060/12 "2013-08-01T14:29:20Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > You had me at naked cheerleaders. Hmmm…to add suspense, maybe it should be strip-cheerleaders. Each time somebody scores, the other team’s cheerleaders lose an item of clothing. For added excitement, at the end of each quarter, a randomly selected fan gets to kick Roger Goodell in the junk. ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2013, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-nfl-pro-bowl-format-does-anyone-care/665060/13 "2013-08-01T15:04:15Z")
Set it up with four teams, with retired HOF players as coaches. The coaches draft their team sandlot style. They play flag football in a 4-team playoff series, with a 40 minute running clock for each game (10 minute quarters). Of course - that leaves out a ton of positions. Anyone have any proposals to rotate linemen in there? ---
**Author:** ![brad\_d](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@brad\_d](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brad_d)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2013, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-nfl-pro-bowl-format-does-anyone-care/665060/14 "2013-08-01T15:19:10Z")
Conventional wisdom among fans seems to be that “nobody watches the Pro Bowl.” I certainly don’t, and nobody I know does, either. I’d have guessed that its TV ratings are terrible - and I’d have been wrong. [This article](http://www.sbnation.com/2013/1/29/3929672/pro-bowl-2013-ratings-down) on [SBnation.com](http://SBnation.com) reveals some numbers I found quite surprising: > [@](#): > > The television ratings are in for the 2013 Pro Bowl, and while they are down for the second year in a row, they’re still solid. The game received a 7.7 overnight rating and was viewed by 12.2 million people. > > \ > > The Pro Bowl outdid Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game, which aired in July on FOX. The MLB game drew 10.9 million viewers and a 6.8 rating. The NBA’s All-Star Game last February in Orlando received a 5.4 rating and 7.07 million viewers on TNT. Conventional wisdom on this topic is mistaken, unless one is using a really large value for “nobody.” ---
**Author:** ![Aji\_de\_Gallina](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aji_de_gallina/32/260_2.png) [@Aji\_de\_Gallina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aji_de_Gallina)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2013, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-nfl-pro-bowl-format-does-anyone-care/665060/15 "2013-08-01T15:22:25Z")
Wanna make it interesting? The pro-bowl’s MVP’s team doesn’t get tested for PEDs in the next season. ---
**Author:** ![Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/intergalactic_gladiator/32/112_2.png) [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intergalactic_Gladiator)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2013, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-nfl-pro-bowl-format-does-anyone-care/665060/16 "2013-08-01T15:37:38Z")
I just remembered this but Jeff Saturday got to hike the ball to Peyton Manning one more time before he retired during this past Pro Bowl despite the fact that they were on opposite teams. i think that’s another reason to like the Pro Bowl, you get little things like that between players that wouldn’t normally happen in the season. ---
**Author:** ![fiddlesticks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddlesticks/32/18129_2.png) [@fiddlesticks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fiddlesticks)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2013, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-nfl-pro-bowl-format-does-anyone-care/665060/17 "2013-08-01T15:38:42Z")
Compared to the rest of the NFL TV numbers “nobody” watches the Pro Bowl. but if that number of people watched it _and_ the players took it seriously, I don’t think the NFL would be hand-wringing about adding gimmicks to the format. The player disinterest is the main problem. ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Panda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ee7513/32.png) [@Darth\_Panda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Panda)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2013, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-nfl-pro-bowl-format-does-anyone-care/665060/18 "2013-08-01T15:45:00Z")
I don’t think the Pro Bowl can be made worthwhile. The naked cheerleaders would be fine, but I don’t see why we need a fake football game for that. I’d rather see more effort put in to the Bud Bowl. ---
**Author:** ![Red\_Wiggler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/red_wiggler/32/13190_2.png) [@Red\_Wiggler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Wiggler)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2013, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-nfl-pro-bowl-format-does-anyone-care/665060/19 "2013-08-01T16:12:27Z")
Twelve million people watch? We need a couple of those to come in here and explain _why_. I mean, really, why the fuck why? Somebody asked about other sports that are on at the same time. NBA, NHL and EPL are all going on with games that actually count. I don’t even like two of those leagues and I’d still watch 'em all over the Pro Bowl. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2013, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-nfl-pro-bowl-format-does-anyone-care/665060/20 "2013-08-01T16:12:52Z")
> [@Darth\_Panda](#): > > I’d rather see more effort put in to the Bud Bowl. What if they were combined into a drinking game, the “Pro Bud Bowl”? Miss a tackle? Drink! Get sacked? Drink! Whiff on a block? Drink! Give up a TD? Social! And no peeing allowed! [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-nfl-pro-bowl-format-does-anyone-care/665060.md?page=2)