Everywhere we look, the National Football League seems to be expanding.
Perhaps a lingering characteristic of this post-lockout era, last night’s opening round of the NFL Draft capped a weeklong media binge that tested the mettle of even the most football-savvy minds. Imagine being a mock draft expert this week.
And last week, the 2012 schedule was released to unprecedented fanfare, thanks largely to two separate three-hour television extravaganzas on ESPN and NFL Network.
Yes, three hours for a schedule release show in the vein of Selection Sunday. That right there could be the most poignant evidence of the NFL’s swelling, perhaps to excess.
But then reports surfaced Thursday morning that the league – with the support of commissioner Roger Goodell – is considering axing the Pro Bowl, the seemingly irreparable all-star game that’s never really been able to stand on its own.
To that notion, I have two words: good riddance.
From 1980-2009, the Pro Bowl was held in Honolulu, Hawaii, as part of some ill-conceived mindset that the tropical city had some special allure to a bunch of millionaire athletes incapable of planning a trip there whenever they want.
The 2010 Pro Bowl was moved to Sun Life Stadium in Miami, the site of that year’s Super Bowl. It was also played the week before the Big Game for the first time ever. The thinking there was that nobody cares about the Pro Bowl after the championship is already decided.
Television ratings actually soared, as ESPN got a 7.9 rating for the game – 39 percent higher than the 2009 game, which was aired on the more widely-watched NBC.
The 2011 and 2012 games remained on the Sunday before the Super Bowl, but were moved back to Hawaii. The 2011 Pro Bowl once again scored record ratings for FOX, which saw a 37 percent increase from the 2010 ratings. In 2012, the game returned to NBC and ratings fell 8.1 percent.
Of course, the networks can’t be blamed. Even that lackluster 2012 Pro Bowl averaged 12.5 million viewers, eclipsing the 11 million that watched the 2011 MLB All-Star Game on FOX.
Anyone with half an eyeball on the 2012 game – or any of the past three, which have all featured at least a combined 75 points scored – can attest to the dreadful quality of the game, which even typically banal wire reports have likened to a pillow fight or touch football game. The most appropriate description might even be a hybrid of the two.
Anyway, Thursday’s news was met with a pretty wide consensus. Yahoo! Sports’ NFL blog, Shutdown Corner, ran an item with the headline, “Pro Bowl might finally be taken out behind the shed and shot.” AwfulAnnouncing.com, a popular sports media site, published an article entitled, “Potential death of the Pro Bowl indicates the NFL values a fraction of dignity over a small profit.” Certainly noble, but talk about a willingness to not mince words.
More than two years ago, in one of my first columns for The Badger Herald, I offered the suggestion of moving the Pro Bowl to the preseason, on the Monday night after the annual Hall of Fame Game in Canton, Ohio. That would create a wonderful weekend of football, with the enshrinement ceremony on Saturday, the Hall of Fame Game the day after and the Pro Bowl on Monday night.
Well, needless to say, that hasn’t happened. Must make too much sense.
Last-ditch efforts to save the Pro Bowl might involve eliminating the game and instead offering some sort of skills competition, similar to MLB’s Home Run Derby or the NBA’s aptly named Skills Challenge, typically with a corporate sponsor’s name attached.
But how would that work with football? Have a flock of fans gather to watch Aaron Rodgers fire bullets through a tire hoop hanging from a tree? Offer some Scouting Combine-style events, but glammed up with the typical all-star game fare? Not sure how that would turn out.
So here we are, with a permanently damaged All-Star game that nobody will miss. Might as well kill it.
Mike is a senior majoring in journalism. Would you care if the Pro Bowl was axed? Let him know on Twitter @mikefiammetta.
