It’s fashionable this week among the media to criticize the NFL’s Pro Bowl arrangement, playing the game in the same location as the Super Bowl, one week before the NFL’s championship game.
I know, I’ve heard plenty about how the Pro Bowl is a joke, and nobody wants to play in it, and how nobody cares about it, nobody watches it and so forth.
We know this because each time it is announced that a player will not participate due to injury, the same smug choir snickers the same tired mantra: “Pretty soon, I’ll be playing in the Pro Bowl instead of covering it!”
Save it.
There are several things to keep in mind:
1) It’s an imperfect event to begin with. Football is a physical sport, and that’s why they play the games once a week, which eliminates a midseason all-star game such as the one played in the romanticized sport of baseball (“the Mid-Summer Classic”). The only time to play it is some time after the regular season.
2) There have always been players selected who don’t play in the game. Yes, even in Hawaii. That’s why alternates are selected. Again, it’s a physical sport.
3) The NFL is so big and so successful, sometimes people just need to find something—anything—they can criticize.
With that established, it’s important to remember that players do consider it an honor, and people do watch.
If players did not consider it an honor—as some suggest because of the big names who won’t be playing—then why are we deluged every year when the teams are announced by a wave of media stories citing players who were snubbed or overlooked? They seem to care then, and I’ll bet they care when they see those who are chosen practicing and playing in the game, some even citing it as motivation throughout offseason training.
And to the notion that “nobody cares” about the game, I suppose they mean that nobody goes to the game or watches. Attendance figures and TV ratings would beg to differ.
It’s always been amusing to read those opinions when the game was played in Hawaii. Every year we hear how lame the Pro Bowl is, and then ratings come out, and they reflect that not only did some people watch, but (gasp!) more people watched the Pro Bowl than even playoff and championship contests in the other major sports.
Yes, ratings for a supposedly irrelevant exhibition in one sport, dwarfing the ratings for playoff contests in another. Advantage: NFL.
If I had to guess why we hear this same chant every year and why it’s even more pronounced this year, I would have to settle on two conclusions:
1) When something is as big and successful as the NFL, people have to find some perceived weak link to pick on;
2) There are just that many more forums to discuss sports—websites, social media—than ever before, and with no news to come out of the camps of Super Bowl participants Indianapolis and New Orleans for a few more days, there has to be SOMETHING to talk about. And what’s next? The Pro Bowl. Unleash the torrent of snickers and witticisms. Snappy one-liners perfect for a 140-character tweet!
What does this mean? Not much. The Pro Bowl will be played, and despite all the complaints about the imperfection of the arrangement (Colts & Saints players not participating, it’s not in Hawaii, it’s an all-star game without the stars, etc.), I expect that attendance and ratings will be as good as, or better than, ever.
The reason is that we’re a nation starved for football, and nobody delivers like the NFL. Detractors, deal with it. And with two weeks to wait for the Super Bowl (oh, yeah, I can hear the drumbeat now about what a bad idea that is too), I’m willing to guess the Pro Bowl will actually be a welcome treat for sports fans, and they will watch.
The Pro Bowl in Miami will continue to be the media’s punching bag for four more days, and probably beyond, but it’s really much ado about nothing.
It calls to mind a tired phrase, but one that became tired because it fits so many situations: “It is what it is.” For something allegedly so irrelevant, it sure has garnered a lot of attention.
Reminds me a little of the famous Yogi Berra line about a particular restaurant: “Nobody goes there anymore because it’s too crowded.”
--Paul Kirk/ProLink Sports
www.prolinksports.net
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