The Pro Bowl’s Dead Husk
Should we just finally mercy kill the Pro Bowl? I’m not even against the Pro Bowl and have been mostly in favor of most of the attempts they’ve made to change it. But none of these changes have gotten me to watch it. I’ll usually just view the highlight clips on social media later. I found out this year the Pro Bowl was on Tuesday night. Why? Was it that way last year? What are we doing?
We had some more Pro Bowl discussion this year because Shedeur Sanders was selected. We’ve known about the flaws in the Pro Bowl selection process for a long time. It’s a popularity contest more than anything. Guys who have big names but down years get selected all the time, and guys with great years but lower profiles get perpetually snubbed. All-Pro selections are the real honor, and the Pro Bowl has become less and less of a badge than ever before. Shedeur Sanders did not deserve the Pro Bowl. He didn’t actually get voted into the Pro Bowl. The Pro Bowl has simply lost so much relevance that a guy who probably got more votes than he should have (due to his rabid fanbase) got in anyway because half the conference pulled out. It’s Snoop Huntley again.
The other two AFC QBs aren’t much better. Joe Burrow at least has the reputation but he missed half the season with a busted toe and wasn’t exactly saving the Bengals when he got back. His injury gap replacement, Joe Flacco, is the other AFC QB. Joe probably didn’t pull out himself because he’s never gone to the Pro Bowl before. Yeah, that surprised me too. I figured he’d have gotten in at least once. This leaves us with the very funny trivia fact that both Ohio teams had 2 Pro Bowl QBs on their roster in 2025. Both of these teams missed the playoffs by a wide margin and none of the 3 QBs played close to a full season. What a stupid year.
Shedeur feels like an insult to the process but when you look at the list of AFC QBs that deserved it ahead of him…there isn’t even that much to be mad about. Most of them pulled out. Shedeur got votes stacked in his favor due to his stans but the reality is he wouldn’t have sniffed it anyway if the conference QBs were mostly healthy. Who is realistically the other healthy AFC options that deserved it over Shedeur anyway? Stroud? Stroud missed time too, and his honeymoon is over. Fans are turning on him, no wonder he didn’t get votes. Tua? Same deal, Tua isn’t anyone’s love anymore and his own stans have bled off so nobody is voting for him either. Cam Ward was hurt. Geno Smith? Geno spent the year losing all the goodwill he earned in Seattle. Justin Fields? Justin Fields turned it down! Shedeur’s selection doesn’t seem as bad in context, the context being the Pro Bowl isn’t worth going to anymore. It isn’t an honor once you get your first nod. He probably deserved the Pro Bowl more than Dillion Gabriel did, as sad as that is.
I don’t want to remove what is ultimately just a party for the guys. They look like they have fun there. But the Pro Bowl just feels pointless now. All attempts to reinvent it have failed. It just shambles along like a zombie. Maybe we can keep the Pro Bowl selection vote as a thing, because I like the idea of a fan vote despite the obvious flaws (I do actually vote every year, for at least one guy on the Giants I love. This year I voted for Burns). We can label them Pro Bowlers but not force them to play a game or do the other events. Make the Pro Bowl games open to any player who wants to go, and they can have a party however they wish. Also move it back to Hawaii. Guys liked going to Hawaii.
Allen is on crutches in a boot with a fractured metatarsal, I feel like he would have played.
In this case, he is injured, but he’s never played in a Pro Bowl. I don’t think he will anytime soon, regardless of injury.
I remember one year he turned it down because he wanted to participate in a golf tournament.
Shedeur Sanders, Pro Bowl QB makes the whole thing worth it IMO. Because it’s funny.
Put it in Hawaii like you said, and move it back to after the super bowl so players on super bowl teams can go too.
This. I feel that moving it to the week before the Super Bowl was the first step in making the game more irrelevant than it already was.
Week after the Super Bowl, back in Hawaii, and make it back to the season-ending party it was always supposed to be.
The goal was to have the pro bowl during a time when people are “still thinking about football”. I.e. before the super bowl. The result was that the pro bowl is now at a time when everyone is distracted thinking about the super bowl and most people forget the pro bowl is even happening.
It used to be a little bit of bonus football after the season ended. It wasn’t _good_ football, but at least the players could have some fun.
Now it’s just pointless.
Without hindsight, it made sense to move it before the Super Bowl. Having it after is like having appetizers after the main course. But once players in the Super Bowl obviously chose not to risk an injury, it opened a Pandora’s box. Next thing you know, the alternates decide “I may not be in the superbowl but this game isn’t worth an injury that carries into next season”, and now pro bowl participants aren’t even good players.
First step to fix this is to have it after the Super Bowl. Ideally have it in Hawaii but if Goodell is cheap, we can let a city bid to host perhaps.
I remember when people were debating on whether or not Osi should pull out so Strahan who was an alternate can get in for his retirement party. I’m kind of glad he didn’t, only because it’s not everyday you get the perk of being the team to win the SB with just one pro bowler.
There used to be a TV show over here called Superstars – a pile of sports stars doing various events, from bike races to fitness tests (UK judo legend Brian Jacks was a beast at the latter). It got revived briefly a few years back, bringing in slightly goofier things like golf chipping and stuff.
That feels like what they’ve turned the Pro Bowl into. I don’t hate that – expand what used to be the QB Challenge – and I get the flag football change. But they need to do more with it. The NBA is trying to keep their allstar weekend fresh (mileage varies, but they’re at least having a crack at it).
And for the record – for the theme tune it had ‘Heavy Action’ by Johnny Preston.
The piece that you guys know as Monday Night Football.
*Pearson
I support making the Pro Bowl even more like Superstars!
The American version of Superstars was a yearly staple on ABC’s Wide World Of Sports in the 70s and 80s, and was revived in the late 90s for second run where most of the participants were football players (Jason Sehorn won 3 consecutive years in the revival) or Olympic athletes, as most pro sports leagues and unions had eventually banned their players from participating.
The first Superstars broadcast, in 1973, is an absolute hoot. It’s clearly a commercial for then-new a housing development in Florida called Rotonda. Joe Frazier decided not to tell production that he didn’t know how to swim and nearly drowns trying to compete in the swimming competition. Johnny Bench quits the bicycle race in a childish tantrum. Johnny Unitas looks every bit as washed up as he did with the Chargers that season. Professional bowler Jim Stefanich is there for some reason. And in a wonderful coda, sports broadcasting legend Jim McKay describes the exciting things each athlete competing did after the conclusion of Superstars; “Jean-Claude Killy was back in ski country in Burlington Vermont… Peter Revson was packing for the Grand Prix of South Africa… Rod Laver… was visiting his in-laws in Tampa…”
I don’t have the answer. But perhaps they can mandate it in the player’s contracts and they can only not play if they have a legit injury.
They could also make it worth something. The conference that wins gets all the home games in that extra game 17 inter-conference game. Also definitely put it back in Hawaii – players enjoyed going there and even more so on the league’s dime. I used to watch the pro bowl when they had decent players and the score would be 60-57 or something.
It’s very funny that you made a comic nearly 10 years ago about killing the pro bowl. When was the last time it was truely popular?
Let’s just have a bowling tournament with a cash prize. That way every pro bowler becomes a pro bowler.
I think part of the problem is times have changed. *Breaks into old man voice* Baa
aaack in myyyyy day, players weren’t able to change teams like they do now! So seeing players like LT, John Randle, Mike Singletary, and Reggie White play together on the same defenses was the kind of insanity you’d only GET from the Pro Bowl.
Nowadays, everyone is changing teams all willy nilly, so seeing premium players match up in a game of glorified flag football is just not as exciting. I think the benefit to the winner needs to be a constant thumb in the loser’s eye. Losing conference has a boot painted on the butts of their uniforms anytime they have an NFC/AFC matchup. Something to bring shame and humiliation back into the picture.
The way I would do it could be to just remove the pro bowl entirely. Make it so the top 6-8 players in each positions are recognized as all stars across each conference and then have 3 all pro teams. That way, you don’t have to select the worst players just because no one wants to play a meaningless game where they can get hurt.
Either that or move it to Hawaii and make it after the Super Bowl as a celebratory sort of thing because at this point no one cares because it’s literally before the biggest game and means nothing and because Super Bowl bound teams can’t play, the best can’t be there.
I get that most everyone pulled out, but even Geno Smith would have been a better choice than Shedeur, who had one of the worst seasons of all time.
Your last sentence would fix a lot of it. Moving it back to Hawaii would help a lot. That would get attendence back up. Then they really need to make it more unique than just flag football. They need to make it more like backyard football with a crazy field and big budget.
Reminds me of the “Always has been.” meme with Ohio.
The thing people forget about Hawaii is that it used to be played in the Aloha Bowl, part of the University of Hawaii. One of the reasons that the NFL pulled out of there was because the stadium was crumbling and getting unsafe. (Also, money, but let’s go with the official reason.) The stadium only *now* is in the middle of being replaced, so maybe in a few more years, the Pro Bowl (assuming it still exists) could move back there.
(And if your reaction was “Couldn’t the NFL have helped fix/rebuild the stadium before now?”, think of which organization you’re talking about.)
Having said that, moving it before the Super Bowl was still beyond stupid. Many of the good players don’t want to go (either from being in the SB itself, or just getting through a playoff run), the.media and fans don’t care, and even the teams themselves are too busy focusing on hiring and firing.
How about if you opt out of the pro bowl, you relinquish your status as a pro bowler, and any bonuses or incentives that status carries are relinquished with it. That’d get attendance up.
Also it’s gotta be after the super bowl. Why would I pay attention to a bunch of guys playing a meaningless game of flag when I can get hyped up about the biggest game of the year?
Make them actual go bowling
Give the winner a cash prize. Then the pro bowlers technically become pro bowlers.
I watched the Pro Bowl, but only because my son came in the room and told me it was on.
It was fun. There were some great laughs, and actual excitement a couple of times.
My son said it best, “The Pro Bowl is over-hated. It’s fun.”
But moving it to Superbowl week has been a huge mistake. Move it back until 1 or even 2 weeks after the SB.
Hell play it in the Draft location in April, and have a few of the drafted players play as well. The first round is on its own day. So let the first rounders play on day 2 of the draft while draft is going on.
You’ve got a bunch of dead time to kill anyway.
Gives the playoff players more time to rest up, and players in the SB may play in it again like they did before.
Plus it won’t be paired up against the SB and AFC/NFC championships.
I’m not sure they called Rivers. I’m sure he would have joined to boost his HoF case
I remember being impressed as hell at Flacco when the Bengals played the Bears this year. 470 yards and four TDs while injured. I’m glad he gets something out of this year.
You should make a comic about the Playoff Bowl the NFL used to do. No word can describe how pointless that was.
Make it so that only the winning team’s players get a Pro Bowl bonus, so they’ll actually be motivated to compete, instead of goofing around.
It’s definitely just time to kill it. I would LOVE to see more fun little events like the obstacle course, dodgeball, throwing comps, etc, but I just don’t think it matters that much to most of the viewing audience. These events are so quick, too, that there’s really no ability to make it feel like a big enough deal to justify the time and money being laid out for it. It honestly might work better as an extension of Super Bowl week itself. Have little pop up events in an area where people are already hyped for an event, and try to glom off of that energy?
Not to mention, as you’ve mentioned, making the Pro Bowl doesn’t matter for prestige anymore. It hasn’t in AGES. Whenever I hear someone talking about how great a player was because of “how many Pro Bowls they made”, I can’t help but roll my eyes. Fair play to guys who make like 10 straight, but it’s always going to benefit larger markets and larger names regardless of how well they’ve actually performed.
Add a 3rd All-Pro Team to give more guys some shine, and maybe try to incorporate some more fun events into Super Bowl week itself, but I just don’t think the format works anymore.