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Possible Pro Bowl Change

Vinny

Vinny

shiny happy fan
Interesting idea to shake up a stale format...
The game is expected to be held in Hawaii next year but the way the teams are chosen might change.

One intriguing option sure to be thoroughly examined is holding a draft as a way to divide up the teams. Details are not yet available on how the process would play out, but one possibility would be for player captains to choose teams as if on a schoolyard. Up until now, teams were separated by conference.
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http://www.theredzone.org/BlogDescr...r-overhaul-at-NFL-Annual-Meeting/Default.aspx
 
I've always felt like the NBA all star game should be played that way. Going to take a while for an NFL team to be assembled that way though...

But i think doing it this way would naturally lead to a more competitive product.
 
They should turn it into a flag football match. I think a big reason the Pro Bowl is so boring is because players don't want to hit each other and risk injury since it's a pointless game. But if it's flag football there's less risk of injury and it could make it more competitive.

I'm not sure if I even buy into my own argument, but they need to change it up somehow to make it interesting to watch.
 
TexanSam said:
They should turn it into a flag football match. I think a big reason the Pro Bowl is so boring is because players don't want to hit each other and risk injury since it's a pointless game. But if it's flag football there's less risk of injury and it could make it more competitive.

I'm not sure if I even buy into my own argument, but they need to change it up somehow to make it interesting to watch.
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Naked Cheerleaders?
 
TexanSam said:
They should turn it into a flag football match. I think a big reason the Pro Bowl is so boring is because players don't want to hit each other and risk injury since it's a pointless game. But if it's flag football there's less risk of injury and it could make it more competitive.

I'm not sure if I even buy into my own argument, but they need to change it up somehow to make it interesting to watch.
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There might be less risk of an injury but who the hell would want to play a nationally televised competitive flag football game as an exhibition?

Just make it a big skills competition like what we had before:

JoeyVsCardboardDB.gif
 
b0ng said:
There might be less risk of an injury but who the hell would want to play a nationally televised competitive flag football game as an exhibition?

Just make it a big skills competition like what we had before:

JoeyVsCardboardDB.gif
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I preferred the skills competition to the actual game, but that's not saying much. I don't know if the NFL can do anything to make people want to watch the Pro Bowl. It's just so dull.
 
TexanSam said:
I preferred the skills competition to the actual game, but that's not saying much. I don't know if the NFL can do anything to make people want to watch the Pro Bowl. It's just so dull.
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I don't really think that there is a way to have a violent game like football can have an exhibition that features the best of the league and have it still be competitive. Owners/GM's don't want their $100m babies getting injured in a game that does not matter, and I doubt players want to seriously put it all on the line for an extra football game that just doesn't count for much.

I'm sure scouts/coaches could come up with "skill drills" that they could re-make the skills challenge with and it might even resemble some portions of football, but that seems as close as we'll get to having NFL players actually competing in some sort of all-star atmosphere.
 
Skills competition and then have it divided into two groups, picked by two captains.

Best of both worlds.

Can't have an actual game under any type of inventive/creative methods. The guys back in the 70s and early 80s played for peanuts, they played the Pro Bowl out of sheer pride-of-self and such.
 
Under the proposal, fans would vote during the season for the top NFL players at each position regardless of conference. For example, instead of voting for three NFC and three AFC quarterbacks, the fans would vote for six quarterbacks from the entire league. (It’s unclear whether players and coaches would still vote on the players, too. Currently, fans, players, and coaches each count for one third of the total vote.)

In December, 86 players selected to the Pro Bowl would be announced, with no specific team affiliation.

Then, on the Wednesday before the game, a draft of the teams would be conducted. The “front office” would include: (1) a prominent NFL alumnus for each team; (2) the highest vote-getter on offense and the highest vote-getter on defense, with each serving as the on-field captain of a team; and (3) the two fans who scored the most points this season playing NFL.com Fantasy Football.
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Link
 
TexanSam said:
They should turn it into a flag football match. I think a big reason the Pro Bowl is so boring is because players don't want to hit each other and risk injury since it's a pointless game. But if it's flag football there's less risk of injury and it could make it more competitive.

I'm not sure if I even buy into my own argument, but they need to change it up somehow to make it interesting to watch.
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Could have a defensive and offensive captain for each squad...just pick 10 other starters and the rest are randomly split up between the two teams.
 
They need to get over the idea that any kind of all-star game featuring NFL players is going to be competitive or exciting. It's not going to happen and nothing will make it happen. If you select your teams this way, or draw names out of a hat, or sort them in alphabetical order, or have fans fight death matches for the right to name a player to the Pro Bowl it won't make a bit of difference. The teams will still get out there and play at half speed trying not to hurt each other because there's too much money at stake.

The NFL should name Pro Bowl teams and send them to Hawaii but instead of letting them play a game they should have them do entertaining skills competitions and hang out all week long with a team of players about to enter the draft who are also picked by NFL coaches and players. Those guys will play an exhibition game along the lines of the Senior Bowl and it would actually serve a purpose. These guys would work for a week or two with NFL coaches and get to learn and make an impression.

The best thing about it is that no player from this day going forward would ever have to play in more than a single Pro Bowl while at the same time the NFL players would continue to be recognized for their accomplishments. The NFL would have an event that they could televise and exploit while Hawaii would continue to get the big football weekend they always have enjoyed. Make the game something that college players want to get invited to so they can maybe impress NFL teams and coaches and then it will become a more competitive contest.
 
We already have a much better process for selecting the best players at each position for the current season and it's the process that produces the annual All-Pro team and though it may not be totally void of partisanism it's vastly superior and more fair and valid than the ridiculous popularity contest that's used to select Pro-Bowlers.
 
They should mix the teams up and let old retired Pro Bowl players play in the game along side current players. The game is not ful contact or full speed either way.
 
mattieuk said:
Sure is inventive! They had to sit and watch the NHL All-Star game from previous years to come up with this ;)
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You beat me to the punch. The NHL has already done this and I thought it was pretty silly.

IMO, they should just do away with the Pro Bowl. Hardly anyone cares and it's no where near the level of the MLB all star game because it's too much of a team sport.
 
Hervoyel said:
They need to get over the idea that any kind of all-star game featuring NFL players is going to be competitive or exciting. It's not going to happen and nothing will make it happen. If you select your teams this way, or draw names out of a hat, or sort them in alphabetical order, or have fans fight death matches for the right to name a player to the Pro Bowl it won't make a bit of difference. The teams will still get out there and play at half speed trying not to hurt each other because there's too much money at stake.
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Agreed.

Hervoyel said:
The NFL should name Pro Bowl teams and send them to Hawaii but instead of letting them play a game they should have them do entertaining skills competitions and hang out all week long with a team of players about to enter the draft who are also picked by NFL coaches and players. Those guys will play an exhibition game along the lines of the Senior Bowl and it would actually serve a purpose. These guys would work for a week or two with NFL coaches and get to learn and make an impression.
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I was thinking the same thing, except....

  1. Forget Hawaii
    It's expensive to get the players to Hawaii, now we're also going to send two full teams as well? Do it in Houston, or if they want to get the Northern venues into the post season festivities, do it in Chicago.

    The players selected to the Pro Bowl teams can pay their own way.. or not show up if they don't want to. I think eventually players will make their own way, just like a bunch of players make their way to the Super Bowl whether they're playing or not.
  2. Not draft eligible players
    I'd hate for a draft eligible player to get seriously injured before the draft.

    Instead, each probowler can sponsor any player who was not on an active roster for x number of games... So let's say Antonio Smith gets voted to the Pro Bowl. He can sponsor Terrell McClain since he was only active for three games of the 2012 season.

    So if Jj Watt also gets voted to the Pro Bowl, we don't have another DE or DT that fits the requirements, he can chose a guy he went to school with on another team.

    These guys would be looking for an opportunity to prove they can play at this level.

All week, we could see the ProBowler working with his protege. They could have silly competitions all week, Survivor style. Then they'd play all out for the game, not wanting to let their sponsors down.
 
Or they can have the two worse teams play for the first pick in the draft.

The pro bowlers could be there to help the coaching staffs of each team with drills & what not. They can have a two week long "Hard Knocks" style thing going on with the probowlers waking the lazy players up & kicking them in the rear at practice.
 
All this convoluted goofy college involvement, bringing in junior NFL players, etc. is just mental masturbation. Leave the damn thing the way it is and if you don't want to watch it don't. The current deal sounds much better than anything I have heard so far.
 
I've been preaching for a while now to just do away with the game and just have some type of awards show. You still choose your all-stars, you can even send them and their families to Hawaii for a week. Because there's no game, you wouldn't have all these injury substitutions, players from the Super Bowl teams could still go and be recognized, and then Saturday night you have an awards banquet where you not only honor the all-stars, show their season's highlights, etc, but you name the MVP, Off. and Def. POTY, Coaches of the year, Rookie OTY, and all that jazz.

That might be a pretty cool event that people might actually want to watch.
 
thunderkyss said:
Agreed.



I was thinking the same thing, except....

  1. Forget Hawaii
    It's expensive to get the players to Hawaii, now we're also going to send two full teams as well? Do it in Houston, or if they want to get the Northern venues into the post season festivities, do it in Chicago.

    The players selected to the Pro Bowl teams can pay their own way.. or not show up if they don't want to. I think eventually players will make their own way, just like a bunch of players make their way to the Super Bowl whether they're playing or not.
  2. Not draft eligible players
    I'd hate for a draft eligible player to get seriously injured before the draft.

    Instead, each probowler can sponsor any player who was not on an active roster for x number of games... So let's say Antonio Smith gets voted to the Pro Bowl. He can sponsor Terrell McClain since he was only active for three games of the 2012 season.

    So if Jj Watt also gets voted to the Pro Bowl, we don't have another DE or DT that fits the requirements, he can chose a guy he went to school with on another team.

    These guys would be looking for an opportunity to prove they can play at this level.

All week, we could see the ProBowler working with his protege. They could have silly competitions all week, Survivor style. Then they'd play all out for the game, not wanting to let their sponsors down.
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Well, I see the point of Hawaii being expensive so sure, they could move it around and maybe make it to Hawaii once a decade or so. I think if done right the city hosting the game could make some money off of it so there would be no shortage of possible sites. I also think the NFL could build a big event around it by associating it more with the draft. Goodell moved it to Super Bowl weekend at one point trying to make it more a part of the NFL season and cement the Super Bowl as the definitive "end" of the season. I think he was 180 degrees wrong. The best plan would be to move it closer to the combine (no worries, not that close) and make it both a reward for players who excelled the previous year and at the same time I legitimate part of the draft process.

I see your point about not getting anyone hurt in the game before their career even begins but I never assumed that your potential first rounders would participate. I likened it to the Senior Bowl in that players would get invited who needed to get on film and wanted to raise their stock. The top talent rarely takes part in those kinds of games and I wouldn't expect them to here. What they could do is invite some of them to do a "Pro Day" type of event by holding out the chance to work with some of the real pros who were selected from the previous season. That might lure some of them out to participate and add another "event" to the weekend.

They need to turn it into another step in that year round NFL process Goodell talks so much about.
 
Speedy said:
I've been preaching for a while now to just do away with the game and just have some type of awards show. You still choose your all-stars, you can even send them and their families to Hawaii for a week. Because there's no game, you wouldn't have all these injury substitutions, players from the Super Bowl teams could still go and be recognized, and then Saturday night you have an awards banquet where you not only honor the all-stars, show their season's highlights, etc, but you name the MVP, Off. and Def. POTY, Coaches of the year, Rookie OTY, and all that jazz.

That might be a pretty cool event that people might actually want to watch.
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^^^ This.
 
infantrycak said:
All this convoluted goofy college involvement, bringing in junior NFL players, etc. is just mental masturbation. Leave the damn thing the way it is and if you don't want to watch it don't. The current deal sounds much better than anything I have heard so far.
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yeah... the only thing that sounds halfway interesting is some sort of skills competition. And that sort of leaves LBs and CBs out - I figure linemen can participate in some sort of strength competition - since those positions don't lend themselves to passing or catching drills as readily as QBs, WRs, and RBs do.

There was a time when the college all-stars played the NFL champs way back in the day - pre-SuperBowl I think. That game kicked off the pre-season IIRC. Don't think that would work nowadays. The last time the college boys won was 1963.
 
For the record, I'm fine with the pro bowl how it is. I still tune in if I'm not doing anything and watch.

There are still periods in the game where you get players really playing and those times are worth it for me.


But I like to mentally masturbate so...

If they want to make a change to the game they could do something like what Herv stated...

But instead of mentoring players like Tkyss said, maybe they could do live drills...just like you'd have at training camp....One on ones with OL/DL...7 on 7 stuff with Offense LB's and DB's...So some of the players going into the draft could get some actual work against pro-bowlers....

Do that for a week and televise it all and then at the end, have all the NFL players hanging out on the sidelines of their squads and let the college players play the actual game. It's just be like another form of the senior bowl....Another tool to evaluate incoming prospects, but at the same time you have the actual pro-bowlers doing football related activities.

Maybe a mash up of My idea, Herv's idea and TK's idea...Pro-bowl players doing various drills with college players all week and filming the practices....College players playing the actual game...and the NFL players mentoring and coaching up the youngsters the whole time...

*They could even use it to globalize the game and host it in different countries and allow select players from those countries to participate and have them play in the games as well.

Who wouldn't watch that? I think that'd be like one of the most viewed NFL related events for several reasons....

*I'd love to see the game globalized to where it could become an Olympic sport. That would be a loooong way away and may never happen, but it would be cool to see a team USA football team going against the rest of the world in a play-off style tournament.
 
Make all the Pro Bowlers play paintball and televise it.

I would find that a lot more interesting than some half-assed exhibition game.
 
The Pencil Neck said:
I'd find the Pro-Bowlers participating in a Spelling Bee a lot more interesting than the current exhibition game.
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I'd watch it! Mainly to see how many of these college graduates can't spell a thing.

But that might shed some negative light on the NFL's farm system called college football. ;)
 
Gone is the familiar AFC vs. NFC match-up that has existed since 1971. Instead, players will be selected without regard to conference in voting by fans, coaches and players. For example, the top six quarterbacks following voting will earn distinction as All-Stars, regardless of how many are from AFC or NFC teams.

Players will be assigned to teams through the Pro Bowl Draft, in which two leading vote getters will join two NFL.com fantasy football champions -- who will attend the Pro Bowl -- to draft players. One of these champions will earn their spot as part of Lenovo's Fantasy Coach of the Year program, which provides NFL.com fans a chance to be rewarded for their fantasy football skills. The other champion can compete for a Pro Bowl role by playing at NFL.com/fantasy.

The fantasy football champions will have Hall of Fame help. Pro Football Hall of Famers Jerry Rice and Deion Sanders will serve as alumni team captains, assisting the Pro Bowl team captains and fantasy football champions in the draft process.
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http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap10...bowl-features-new-format-for-nfl-allstar-game
 
Potentially, JJ Watt could be tackling Arian Foster in this game. Take it easy on him JJ, in fact let him score.
 
I like it...

But if I understand this right, this will have huge implications on which guys now are selected as pro-bowlers or "all-stars" now.

I think most notably, the QB's.
 
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