The NFL Pro Bowl Needs to Change
I couldn’t help but laugh as they announced “The AFC Pro Bowl Quarterbacks” at this year’s Pro Bowl game in San Francisco. Out walked a rag-tag squad of Joe Burrow (injured half of the season), Joe Flacco (the 41-year-old who went 2-8), and Shedeur Sanders (a rookie who threw more interceptions than touchdowns).
When I was growing up, the Pro Bowl meant something. It was a yearly celebration of the guys who didn’t make the Super Bowl but put up great numbers and deserved recognition. They would go out there and play hard for their respective conferences, actually putting some effort into the plays. We all remember the Sean Taylor hit from the 2006 game; while extreme, it’s an example of how players used to care.
While player safety is important, the Pro Bowl’s shift from a real football game to whatever it is now has undermined many players’ motivation to participate. As a result, we have one quarterback after another opting not to fly out to the exhibition and instead just train for the next season. This is how Shedeur Sanders, who has no right to be on the same field as Ja’Marr Chase and Jonathan Taylor—at least, not yet—ends up quarterbacking the AFC squad for a good bit of the game.
There needs to be a change to restore some validity to the game, and I think it starts not with the game itself but with the voting procedures. Some of the power needs to be taken out of the hands of the fans, and transparency needs to be displayed in the results. Take the NBA, for example. Its All-Star election is split between the fans, players, and media to prevent bias and casuals from swaying the results. Many fans vote on name recognition alone, which puts guys like Brandon Aubrey in the Pro Bowl year after year, even if other players are more prolific. In addition, the NBA has coaches, not the fan vote, decide who would replace the All-Stars if someone can’t make the game. In the NFL, the fan vote alone decides who is next up, which leads to guys like Shedeur being an option way before he should be.
Worst of all, being selected to the Pro Bowl has serious effects on many players. For Flacco, he now has to be considered for the Hall of Fame because he got a Pro Bowl nod at 41, when he didn’t actually deserve it. Pro Bowls are a stat that is seriously considered when comparing players and evaluating them for future honors.
Where we go from here fully relies upon how much the NFL cares about its Pro Bowl. The game has been a part of the league since 1951 and has never been more unserious, culminating in last night’s game, which was highlighted by Micah Parsons driving around on a scooter and Shedeur Sanders forcing an opposing player to do the “Perfect Timing” celebration after throwing him an interception. If that’s what the NFL wants the game to be from now on, so be it. But if they want it to regain its integrity and become something to behold, a true honor for players to compete in, then they need to change their process and product.