The Dolphins Make Me Cry.com - Forums

What will soon be the hottest ticket in town is now on its way to my mailbox.

That's right, I just bought 2 tickets to the 2010 Pro Bowl.

Aren't you jealous?

You should be!

You will be expected to post pics, Brian

Moving the Pro Bowl to before the Super Bowl and leaving those players out is the stupidest idea the NFL has ever come up with.

I think it's actually a good idea.

Why? It leaves out some of the deserving talent since the SB players are typically on the roster.

Because I think it will draw attention to the game more.  The week before the Super Bowl is one where everyone wants more football.  The game will have a lot of eyes on it, and the city will already be prepped for it.

It does take a few elite players from the game, but it'll give a few other guys a chance to get the spotlight on them, on a stage where I think people will actually watch.

You may be right, but the game is still meaningless to me and is worse now without the same talent. The timing doesn't mean much to me and one week without football isn't enough to generate interest to a game that is played half heartedly anyway.

In some ways it is better.  The deserving players on the two teams will still be voted to the pro-bowl and in many ways being voted to the pro-bowl is a bigger honor than actually playing in the in the game.  And any NFL player who would rather play in the pro-bowl than the superbowl has absolutely no concept of "team."  Likewise fans of the two superbowl teams are not gonna be majorly bummed out because there favorite player is not playing the pro-bowl.  Or if said fans are than they have a serious case of only seeing the glass half empty.  

I do see some downsides.  

The coaches for the pro-bowl are the losers of the NFC/AFC games.  Under the old system they had a couple of weeks to recover from the long season, the heart breaking loss and have some time to spend with their families that they have barely seen since training camp before needing to turn around and coach some players they don't really know.   Now they will expected to go straight from losing the championship game to coaching the pro-bowl without even having a chance to spend a day with their families.

Sometimes players from the defeated superbowl team skip the probowl for much of the reasons in the prior paragraph particularly if they have been to the probowl before.  Players that have had a couple of weeks to relax since their last game even if it was the championship game tend to show up no matter how devistating the playoff loss was.  If we have both the championship winners out and the losers skipping that means that we are lacking players not of just the two best teams but the four best teams.

Plus moving the pro-bowl up three weeks may result in players that weren't seriously injured but banged up not going to the game because they haven't had a chance to recover from the bruises.  Particuarly true of players on playoff teams.

Many of the players attend because Hawaii is a nice venue and the family wants to go to the beach in Feb.  (particularly true for players on teams that play in the snow).  While Miami is a nice place to head to in Feb.  Other SB venues are not.  Hold the pro-bowl in Indy or Detriot and I think you will see plenty of players skipping the pro-bowl and just take their family on vaction in Hawaii instead.    

This is not a good idea. I think it's stupid to leave out Pro-Bowlers from the two super bowl teams

I still don't understand why the Pro Bowl can't be the first pre-season game...scrap the stupid Hall-of-Fame Canton game and make it the Pro Bowl.

....it's anti-climatic to have a "fun" game in between the two most serious games of the whole season, in the conference championship and the super bowl games. I think it will take away from the build-up to the Super Bowl.

Also, if you make the Pro Bowl, you should be REQUIRED to play in the game. It's also a joke when 30 players don't show up to play and they have to get replacement pro-bowlers...which devalues the meaning of a Pro-Bowler in the first place.

^^^^^

I've got an idea.  Why not have a "third place" or "consolation" game in between the conference championships and the Super Bowl?  The conference championship losers can then face off to see who is the third best in the league. 

And if they don't what are you going to do?  Fine them, throw them out of the league.  Good luck getting that past the union. 

I think that it's probably harder to get people to take a pretty brutal flight all the way to Hawaii, than it is somewhere within the continental US.  ...and it drops them off at the Super Bowl site -- Why not give them all tickets to the game, too?

I have to disagree Dave. Hawaii is one of almost eveyone's favorite vacation destinations. I would say the flight is only a deterring factor for the minority.

Maybe you're right, especially when dealing with making it a family vacation thing. 

Yes, fine them. Otherwise why even have a Pro Bowl? Just name the all-stars on paper and leave it at that. It's devaluing of what a Pro Bowler is to have replacement Pro Bowlers because Randy Moss and Adrian Peterson don't want to play. I don't want to watch Jerry Porter and Avion Cason play...I want to see the top stars.

I think the NBA makes a very enjoyable All-Star game. It doesn't mean anything, but all of the stars are there and scoring wildly. I don't watch NHL, and in the MLB it's stupid on both how they're selected and the fact that winner gets home field advantage.

This should be an event where it's fun and doesn't mean anything and where the top stars selected play in the game. Having it before the super bowl automatically eliminates at least 5 if not upwards of 10 Pro Bowlers from the game, which again is stupid

I can only speak for myself, but I'm WAAAAAAY more likely to watch the Pro Bowl if it's the week before the Super Bowl.  Otherwise, I forget that it's on.  I own a football website, for Christ's sake, and I don't care enough to pay attention for the game.

The goal of the game is to get people to watch it -- to entertain people.  I think that there's a better chance of people watching now, which is a good thing.

agreed.  so what if 5 players don't play.  even if it is 10.  who cares?  there are 30 other teams in the league with good players that deserve a spotlight as well. 

My biggest problem isn't really who sits out. it is that I don't watch any of the all-star games. They don't have the feel of a real game for the most part. Baseball is the only sport that has tried to do something about that and I'm not on board with their plan of action either.