NFL looking at ways to improve the Pro Bowl

[Rochesterfan]

3 hours ago, May Day 10 said:

 

I have always accepted all-star games for what they are/were.  Meaningless exhibitions, but you get to see all the stars in one place.  A little bit of pageantry and the host city gets put in the spotlight for a weekend for the sport.  I agree on the 3 on 3 thing for the NHL.  I dont think it has been nearly as bad as their other gimmicks... but just give me East vs West.   I dont need the game to mean anything, nor do I want to overly incentivize the players to create fake meaning.  I also like the pause in the schedule and a 'breather' before the stretch run. 

 

The continuous play of hockey and basketball lend itself well to these exhibitions and you get to see the stars do some fun things and score a lot of points.  

 

MLB, I just like the history of it.  AL vs NL.  Its fun.  Cool ballpark decked out.  whatever.

 

 

NFL/football as a sport does not lend itself to this sort of exhibition, not to mention most of the players just got through a brutal war of attrition and are either recovering, or mitigating their risks for meaningless injury.  Each conference is forced to look deep on the bench for willing participants.   

The game itself is unwatchable and not fun, even compared to the other 3 major sports leagues.  I also thing being played after the season hurts it.  

 

I totally hear and don’t disagree with any of this, but the reality of it is for as unwatchable as the Pro Bowl is - it still drew over 8 million viewers to watch the game.

 

It beats out the All-Star game for Baseball, nearly doubled the NBA All-Star game, and is watched by 8x as many people as the NHL.

 

So if the Pro-Bowl is unwatchable- what are the others.  In its current format - on a weekend between the championship and the Super Bowl going against live NBA and NHL games and the Pro Bowl still outdraws both the competition and other All Star games.

 

MLB All-Star comes close, but it is played against no TV competition and still doesn’t outdraw the Pro Bowl.

 

 

Edited May 26, 2022 by Rochesterfan

[Southern_Bills]

14 hours ago, The Red King said:

All kidding aside, flag football would work.  All the skill with far less chance of injury.

 

Maybe, we have so many non contact ACLs and ehat not these days it's still a big risk for a professional athlete. 

 

If I were an athlete of that level being paid millions, I wouldn't take the risk of an extra exhibition game.

 

They have to put their best asset at risk constantly (training, OTAs, camp, games) so adding to it seems silly.

[Alphadawg7]

1.  Whatever it is, should be after the SB not before so everyone can participate if they want to.  
 

2.  The game can not be repaired, it has to go as is.  
 

3.  A flag football game seems like a reasonable replacement, but it won’t be and it won’t last.  Why?  Because making it flag football would encourage the players to play harder and faster, and it’s not a matter of it, but when someone gets a serious non contact injury such as ACL or Achilles tear.  And if they don’t play hard and fast, then it’s just as bad as the game they play now.
 

4.  Most likely low risk and long term viable solution is replace it with a series of competitions like Saturday in NBA all star weekend.  
 

5.  Maybe in addition to skills competition they could possibly add in some non football team competitions too such as dodge ball, golf, softball.  
 

Now for what I would personally do:  Me and a group of friends play a game we call the Cobra Games (no idea where name came from lol) Friday after thanksgiving every year.  
 

It’s a drunken Olympics of sort amongst us where every team member must take a shot before and in some cases after each event lol (NFL doesn’t have to include alcohol of course).  We break up into teams, usually 3 or 4 per team depending how many players we have that year and play 5 events.  We play it at a local high school (since school is not in session the day after thanksgiving) on a basketball court and football field.  We all put in like $20 into the winners pot.

 

First is a basketball shooting challenge.  Each person on your team has to shoot from somewhere on the court before you can shoot again.  There are designated point zones where you get different amount of points on made baskets from those areas.  You have 90 seconds to score as many points as you can.  Shoot out of turn and you have to take a shot of alcohol before you can shoot again.
 

Second is FG kicking.  Each team starts at the 10 yard line, one team plays at a time.  Everyone on the team kicks, as long as one person makes it the ball gets moved back 5 yards.  You keep going until no one makes it.  Longest FG wins, tie breaker is how many on team made it from that distance, and if still tied then how many made it the distance before and so on and so on.  
 

Third is pass catching.  You start 5 yards apart with each of your teammates in a daisy chain.  You can not take more than 1 step in any direction to make the catch, meaning one foot has to be planted at all times when catching the ball.  Drop it and you’re out, throw a bad pass to where they can’t catch it without moving their plant foot, you’re out.  Once everyone successfully completes the chain, you move 5 more yards apart.  You do this until a pass is not completed.  Longest completed daisy chain wins, ties go to a throw off.  
 

Fourth is a relay race.  You start by cracking, pouring, and chugging a beer.  Once empty you run 20 yards and back. Next person now does same chug and then sprints 30 yards and back.  Then next teammate goes 40 yards (always ten yards longer than previous) and back.  And so on until whole team has gone.  Best team time wins.  If you spill any beer, foam any beer out of your cup, if you leave any beer in can or cup, etc  then you must do 10 pushups while clock is running before continuing.

 

Fifth and final game:  Bowling, highest scoring team wins.  
 

All games and place finishes worth certain amount of points, most total points wins the trophy.  
 

Winning team takes everyone to local dive strip club after and uses prize money to buy every team a pitcher of beer and a round of lap dances for winning team.  The afternoon show at the local dive strip club is quite an interesting show too haha.  
 

So maybe an NFL version of this is a 2 day challenge where NFC vs AFC break up into an Olympics of sort made up of smaller teams and do some mini games like this to earn points.  Mini Games inspired by sports such as golf, volleyball, basketball, softball, cornhole, bowling and of course NFL skills challenges, 7 on 7 flag football, etc.  
 

They would have to strategize where to use say Aaron Rodgers…he has a 4 handicap in golf…use him there or a skills challenge where throwing the ball is involved?  
 

I think this would be fun.  By the way, I shared all those details of our Cobra Games more for you guys in case anyone thought they might have fun doing it with friends.  
 

 

Edited May 26, 2022 by Alphadawg7

[RyanC883]

make it a game of PS all stars.  Those players are generally “fan favorites” for their hard work, personalities,  and those players would be playing for exposure.  

 

That said, it may be a terrible idea for teams to give their PS guys any more exposure. 

[ddaryl]

1 hour ago, Jauronimo said:

I have been advocating for family picnic style competitions.  Potato sack races, three-legged race, pie eating, egg on a spoon race, russian roulette, hot potato, mumblety peg, duck duck bull f@#$ng moose, musical stools, etc.

  I would say ideas in this nature but with a football twist


also musical stools? I hope you meant chairs cause I don't think stools is appealing. Players poopin to music came to mind when I read it.

[Jauronimo]

Just now, ddaryl said:

  I would say ideas in this nature but with a football twist


also musical stools? I hope you meant chairs cause I don't think stools is appealing. Players poopin to music came to mind when I read it.

Fine.  But I'm not compromising on Mumblety Peg.  

[ddaryl]

5 minutes ago, Jauronimo said:

Fine.  But I'm not compromising on Mumblety Peg.  

Ha, what's Mumblety Peg

 

 

Found It
 

 

Edited May 26, 2022 by ddaryl

[Bookie Man]

Ryder cup style golf match. I wouldn't care how good or bad they were. It'd still be great to watch.

[Marv's Neighbor]

Just fugutaboutit!  Nobody cares about an NFL flag football game.