Is the Pro Bowl a week before the Super Bowl a good idea?

[brdmaverick]

Okay, before I get flamed for talking about the Pro Bowl when we have a well-hyped matchup coming up against the Saints, let me just say that those commercials promoting the voting for the Pro Bowl got me thinking......

...is having the Pro Bowl a week before the Super Bowl a good idea?

At first I thought it was. It would be a fun exhibition game to hold us over during the bye week right before the biggest game of the year. It would be a nice relaxing lead-in to the much hyped Super Bowl, instead of being the anti-climactic game afterwards. I'll admit that I am one of the few people that watches the Pro Bowl religiously every year.

Each year I hope that the players that were selected decide to appear in the game. I love seeing the game's best players on one stage.

That being said, with the game a week before the Super Bowl, we can automatically eliminate any Pro Bowlers from the Super Bowl participants. Furthermore, I will go even farther to say that the conference runner ups will also not appear in the game. Yes, past conference runner ups have gone to the Pro Bowls, but they have had a full 2 weeks since their conference loss sink in (it will have been three weeks when the game is actually played). Now, can you imagine losing a conference championship game and still deciding to go to Miami, the place that you thought you would be going as a Super Bowl participant? Would one really go and watch the players that just beat you enjoy the feasts and luxuries of Super Bowl week. I would imagine this to be pretty tough.

So for arguments sake, let's say that the Super Bowl participants and conference championship participants do not appear in the game. If the standings hold true, then the Colts, Pats, Saints, and Vikings will not show. This will be an All Star game without the All Stars.

Think about it, that would mean that Manning, Brees, Brady, Favre, Moss, Wayne, Welker, Peterson, and Rice will be no-shows. Sure, Brady and Favre don't typically go anyway, but what about the others.

 

[HEY BRO! WHAT UP?]

I don't think it matters because the players that make the pro bowl will obviously miss the game if their teams are in the super bowl. I don't think it's a big deal or anything to worry about. But the NFL is pretty stupid for doing this because they could miss players like Brees, Manning, Brady, Favre, Petterson, Moss, Welker, and the list goes on.

 

[Patjew]

Sanchez! Cutler! It's the 2009 Pro Bowl!!!

 

[Nikolai]

Sanchez! Cutler! It's the 2009 Pro Bowl!!!

Sanchez won the Super Bowl, remember?

 

[Satchboogie3]

How about we just get rid of the pro-bowl all together? It's a pointless game that nobody really cares about and isn't worth the injury risks.

 

[patsfan-1982]

will the pro bowl was all redy the worst all star game in all of sport's

and now that it's not in hawaii i think even less player's will want to go to it or play in it

and brady and Favre dont realy like to play in the game any way's only payton manning love's to play in that game

but to answer your question i dont think haveing the game one week befor the SB will hurt the pro bowl

i think the pro bowl is just a bad game no blitzing most of the guy's dont hit hard

i liked all the stuff befor the pro bowl like the NFL fastest man and

the NFL strongest man and the QB challenge

that stuff is more fun then the game

 

[Tunescribe]

This is another very lame Goodell idea that somehow got implemented. Honestly, they should just do away with the Pro Bowl and replace it with a two-hour awards ceremony that includes highlight footage. Football is not conducive to a good all-star game. For one thing, defense is lacking.

 

[convertedpatsfan]

Sanchez! Cutler! It's the 2009 Pro Bowl!!!

If you die and go to hell.

I don't like the Pro Bowl, but I really don't like it a week before the Super Bowl. And why does voting start so early? We should judge somebody's entire season, not their first half.

 

[dhamz]

The Pro bowl is already irrelevant. They are trying to change that with this. I doubt it will work but it won't make it worse.

 

[PatsFanSince74]

As I read your post, it dawned on me that your thread title might better have read "Is the Pro Bowl a good idea?"

I used to think of it as a nice week in the sun for guys who had played well all season, but most of whom didn't get to the big show of the SB. Especially cool for the usually unheralded players on the line. I also always thought it was interesting to watch a Belichick or Cowher or Dungy in a losing year deal with players from around the league.

Maybe this is the beginning of the end of the Pro Bowl. Instead, why not just let the fans and players elect their favorites and have the League send them on all expenses paid vacations with their families to venues of their choosing?

 

[102 Pat]

will the pro bowl was all redy the worst all star game in all of sport's

and now that it's not in hawaii i think even less player's will want to go to it or play in it

and brady and Favre dont realy like to play in the game any way's only payton manning love's to play in that game
but to answer your question i dont think haveing the game one week befor the SB will hurt the pro bowl

i think the pro bowl is just a bad game no blitzing most of the guy's dont hit hard

i liked all the stuff befor the pro bowl like the NFL fastest man and

the NFL strongest man and the QB challenge

that stuff is more fun then the game

If Peyton wants to play a week before the SuperBowl, I'll enjoy watching Brady and the Pats play the week after!

 

[Joker]

Pro Bowl???

c'mon..idiotic

 

[olschool]

They should just have a golf tournament at Disney world , or something like that.

Robert Edwards ruined his career after his first season, at the stupid probowl, and it was the day before the game playing beach ball.

 

[stinebot]

Here is a good idea for the Pro Bowl. Cancel it. It isn't a real game. Often times the most deserving players are left out in favor of a well known name that hasn't actually done squat in years. All the Pro Bowl and related activities are is a chance for a player to hurt themselves for no good reason a la Robert Edwards. Sure, it might have been nice for guys to get a trip to Hawaii when the game was actually there. But even at minimum salary, if you are in the NFL you can fit a vacation for your family into the budget unless you are a complete idiot.

 

[eagle eye]

The game is just a joke and its become even more of a farce now, there is no way on this earth that any player from a Superbowl team will even dress for this game. And if one was stupid enough to dress for it, I'd love to see him get destroyed and miss the Superbowl, that would end the probowl for good imo.

Edit to add: I suppose they could move it to London, I'm sure it would be huge over there with a lot of big names playing in it and nobody would be missing a home game either.

 

[TrueBeliever]

Sticking with the actual topic of the thread, I'll say there are advantages and disadvantages. The advantage is it brings a lot more attention to the game and (as was said earlier) makes it a lot less anticlimactic. Also, I already see the league is using it to enhance the whole Super Bowl week experience, which makes sense from a promotion/marketing standpoint.

Whether excluding participants from the Super Bowl teams is a disadvantage is a matter of opinion. A lot of times players from the SB pulled out anyway on account of being too beat up the week before (though not always, I know.)

The main disadvantage IMHO is not so much that it's held the week before the Super Bowl, it's that it is (for now) slated to be played at the same stadium the SB is in rather than in Hawaii. Players used to look forward to going to Hawaii in February, especially those from northern cities. Who wants to go to Indianapolis in January? That's not a vacation. Better hope Detroit doesn't get another one either.