The Pro Bowl Predicament

Every NFL football season since 1970, NFL fans, players, and coaches have voted for who ends up being able to play in the Pro Bowl. The Pro Bowl is the annual game played by the best players that are currently in the NFL. Up until the 2014 NFL season, the Pro Bowl consisted of the two conferences the NFC (National Football Conference) and the AFC (American Football Conference) facing off in the game but after the 2013 season, the NFL decided to choose two captains that will draft their teams in a fantasy style draft until the 2016 season. The NFL then decided to change back to the NFC vs AFC format.  

Along with the actual Pro Bowl game the NFL also has a weekend dedicated to players participating in the different competitions. Some of those competitions have been different things spanning from the quarterback accuracy challenge where a quarterback from a team will have to hit targets earning points and the leader in points by the end wins, to the best hands challenge where the wide receivers are thrown the ball by their quarterback in different styles of catches have to be performed for points, but the most popular of them all every year has been dodgeball. Dodgeball on the NFL Pro Bowl weekend is played the same way as you would in gym class where the two teams go up against each other with the classic dodgeball rules.

Just like many other things get boring after a while, the viewers of the Pro Bowl have gotten bored with the same thing every year and the low lack of effort that the participating players were putting in was also a factor in the fan’s upsetness. Fans of the NFL have been complaining about how little effort the players have been putting in the recent years of the Pro Bowl with many also pointing out how the game has become a two-hand touch game in the last ten years. Sophomore Marc Benz’s opinion on the recent years of the Pro Bowl is very similar to many other fans “I think the NFL has gotten soft with it (Pro Bowl game), let the players play and make the game enjoyable for the fans. Let the fans have the enjoyment with the physical contact that the Pro Bowl used to have which helped lead to highlights such as Sean Taylor’s vicious hit on Brian Moorman in the 2006 game”.

Luckily for the fans, it appears that the NFL has finally listened and made changes due to the cries and complaints of the fans about the way the Pro Bowl game has been handled in the past ten years. 

On September 26th, 2022 the NFL accounted that the “Pro Bowl” would now be turning into “The Pro Bowl Games” which will hold a week-long event consisting of some of the classic competitions such as the “best hands” and “precision passing” competitions. The NFL has changed the actual Pro Bowl game to a Flag Football version. Drew Klemesrud thinks that the changes the NFL has made won’t make a difference for enjoyment and viewership “ It’s unnecessary, the players still have the chance of getting injured which I’m guessing was the reason for changing to flag, while also not being entertaining. Nobody watches the broadcast anyways”. Aarav Satturu whos a junior agrees to say “My opinion is that I like the skills challenges but the recent pro bowl games have been pretty boring. Like I understand why they don’t go full contact it’s reasonable no reason to get hurt but the game itself isn’t fun. They should just do some 7 on-7 flag football at this point, and then make the skills challenges even bigger. An arm strength contest with people like Matthew Stafford and Arod and Patty and Jherbo and Allen would be cool”.

All in all, hopefully, the changes the NFL has put in place for at minimum this year payoff and give the new “Pro Bowl week” the excitement and hype that it use to create back in its prime times.