At this point, I couldn’t care less about “All-Star” games in any sport. The NBA is all about scoring points and making highlight reels, the NHL is little better when it comes to “defense”, and MLB’s All-Star game became irrelevant with interleague play and the absence of any real sense of competition between leagues.
Vote to name the best in each sport, maybe have a few skills competitions for those to whom it matters, and spare us the useless glamor contests.*
*the WBC in baseball included, although it’ll be interesting to see what serious injuries in those games compromise MLB teams’ ability to compete for a WS title.
The MLB All Star Game at least used to have some significance to the players - back when it was established, the owners agreed that the gate and all revenues would go to the players’ pension fund. So the players had an incentive to at least play a game fans would want to watch.
That was an Idea I’d had too but hadn’t expressed. E.g get all the baseball and football greats together in early Feb and have them play hockey. Get all the golf & basketball greats together in e.g. September and have them play baseball. Get the hockey & soccer greats together in April and have them play basketball. Next year they play a different mix of sports so over a couple years every major- or semi-major sport is represented both by players and by being played by pro athletes from other sports.
Silly, bordering on stupid. But fun in a whimsical sense.
And they might, just might, get some fans to spread their allegiance from the people they came to watch to the sport they just saw played. Collectively, the various sports are much more synergystic revenue-wise than they are competitive w each other. And revenue is, after all, the one and only thing that matters. Making a highly “ecumenical” sports fan is ideal for their collective revenue streams.
The problem is that those are sports that are more likely to lead to injuries than the playground-style activities at the Pro Bowl. If injuries weren’t a concern they’d just play a real game of NFL football.
That was when it jumped the shark. Haven’t even attempted to watch it since then.
Living in NFC territory, I had a team to root for when it was AFC vs. NFC but once they went to gym class format I didn’t care who won & therefore didn’t even bother to watch.
This year’s idea of 7-on-7 flag football? The game useless promotion needs a double-tap to the back of the head as at least a third cousin, twice removed, from an NFL game.
How about including the cheerleaders? Women could comprise either the offense, defense, or special teams with only two or three male players so that injuries would be kept to a minimum. Have the excess men do the cheerleading. Lots of laughs could be had.
Not every NFL team has cheerleaders (seven did not in 2022). Also, the idea sounds like its appeal would be more akin to the “X League” (formerly known as the Lingerie Football League).
Seattle used to have the “Sea Gals” but they are now called the generic “Seahawks Dancers”. Since they are no longer exclusively women, though, the name change makes sense.
You also need to consider that. Would you mix the men and women cheerleaders or just have one or the other?
I’ve never watched the Pro Bowl, but based upon what I saw 30 years ago (on sports page headlines), I always thought the Pro Bowl was supposed to be played the week after the Super Bowl.
There was a time when the league used to do actual skills competitions- how far could the quarterbacks throw, who was the fastest runner, which player could bench press the most weight, etc.
I’d watch that, and indeed I used to think that this is what the pro bowl should turn into.
I also long thought that they could go to a flag football game, but I did presume that it’d be better quality than what we ended up getting.
I’d feel better about the NFL continuing to exist if they’d transition the entire kit and kaboodle to flag football. Then maybe they’d stop making excuses about how playing more than once a week is too h-a-a-a-r-r-r-d and have 162-game seasons, like a real sport.
Yes, it used to be played the weekend after the Super Bowl. The NFL moved it into the “bye” week between the conference championships and the Super Bowl starting in 2015, in an effort to make it feel less anti-climatic (the reasoning being that, after the Super Bowl, fans might be “done” with football for the year).
I love the fact that I rarely miss a game that my team is playing. I’d have to be unemployed to watch every game of a baseball team, for example.
Also, given that NFL football is the overwhelmingly dominant sport in the US, they’re clearly doing something right. It’s the other sports that should try to figure out what they’re doing wrong IMO.