A pathetic '12 Pro Bowl

[anapuni808]

Re: A pathetic '12 Pro Bowl

All true, and why I doubt I'll bother with another PB again. Heck, I don't even recognize hardly any player names now. I may have watched 2 hrs. of NFL reg season in the last 4 years.

That could explain why you don't rrecognize any player names! 2 hrs does not a real football fan make.

[Frankie's Market]

Re: A pathetic '12 Pro Bowl

There may have been one too many "yups" in that post. I can think of two years when the Super Bowl was played the week after the conference championships, and one of them I'm not sure of. In one of the strike-shortened seasons, I think they did that. And in 2002, when the regular season was put on hold after the World Trade Centers went down, I think they did that.

I'm pretty sure that except for those exceptions, the Super Bowl has ALWAYS been two weeks after the conference title games, at least in the time of my football awareness (going back to Super Bowl XI). I know that in John Madden's autobiography, Madden says he gave the whole team off in the first week, then resumed the regular practice schedule for the week before the game. So at least since 1976, right?

Actually, going back to the very first Super Bowl, when the NFL and AFL title games were played on 1/1/67, and the world championship being played 2 weeks later on 1/15/67 at the LA Memorial Coliseum. The 2 week interim between the Super Bowl and the previous round of games was carried over through the NFL-AFL merger and continued on for many years, with the exception being Super Bowl XVII, which was played a mere week after the expanded playoff format necessitated by the 1982 strike-shortened regular season.

But believe it or else, there were a couple of Super Bowls (XXIII and XXIV) that were played 3 weeks after the AFC-NFC championship games. The longer interim allowed the NFL and the media to generate more hype, but it resulted in SB games where the players looked noticeably rusty in the early going.

Then came Super Bowl XXV, when the Big Game was played just one week after the conference games. But since then (with the lone exception of the post-9/11 Super Bowl XXXVI) it's been 2 weeks.

Whew! Is that complete enough for you?

edit:
I'm going with Ron on this one, but also with the others who say who cares about an all-star game. I actually like the baseball all-star game, and the NHL game is kind of fun for the casual fan who only watches a few games per year.

Speaking as someone who has been a diehard NY Rangers fan for over 30 years, I would say the NHL all-star game is probably an exhibition that is most dissimilar to the regular season/playoff counterpart out of all the major team sports. More so than the NFL. Fans go into the NHL game expecting to see a ridiculous 15-20 goals scored between the two teams. There's no body checking. (Anytime players get tangled up, it's just a result of incidental contact.) No attempt by teams to waive icing calls. Line substitutions are sometimes a fiasco. And defensemen won't even attempt to block shots with their bodies, leaving the goaltender to fend for himself when slapshots come his way. No, a casual fan should definitely not mistake the ASG played among NHL peers as a real hockey game. It's not even close.

Ah, but put those same guys in uniforms representing their native country in a setting like the Olympics,..... now, you're talkin' business.

[Ron Whitfield]

Re: A pathetic '12 Pro Bowl

That could explain why you don't rrecognize any player names! 2 hrs does not a real football fan make.

I still bleed LA Ram blue, please, don't even go there.

The NFL doesn't interest me any more, they lost me, why should I know current names? I know the names of NFLers from UH and those who are worthy and in the HoF, and got at least a hundred of their signatures from the good ol' days.

[Ron Whitfield]

Re: A pathetic '12 Pro Bowl

Look's like I'm in good company http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nfl-sh...215453448.html

[808shooter]

Re: A pathetic '12 Pro Bowl

What do we expect? Let's say the avg all star makes $4 mil per year. I think that's actually accurate. That's 400K per game. Why would they risk getting hurt for a 50K prize money? A delta of only 25K for winners vs losers???

It's simple economics and smart on the players behalf.

[Ron Whitfield]

Re: A pathetic '12 Pro Bowl

What do we expect? Let's say the avg all star makes $4 mil per year. I think that's actually accurate. That's 400K per game. Why would they risk getting hurt for a 50K prize money? A delta of only 25K for winners vs losers??? It's simple economics and smart on the players behalf.

And not worth half a cent to fans.

[Ron Whitfield]

Re: A pathetic '12 Pro Bowl

And with $4000 for a standard ticket price for the Super Bowl, the NFL can go to hell.

[Mike_Lowery]

Re: A pathetic '12 Pro Bowl

So Roger Goodell was on ESPN Radio's Mike & Mike this morning, and he said after the pathetic showing this year, he's contemplating suspending the Pro Bowl.

http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Football/N.../19341091.html

[Frankie's Market]

Re: A pathetic '12 Pro Bowl

So Roger Goodell was on ESPN Radio's Mike & Mike this morning, and he said after the pathetic showing this year, he's contemplating suspending the Pro Bowl.

Yeah right! With the millions that the NFL rakes in from the Pro Bowl event every year, only an idiot would literally believe the commissioner's statement about eliminating the game and walking away from all that money. I repeat: Anyone who takes this statement seriously is an unqualified I-D-I-O-T.

Goodell is posturing, and the writer of this article astutely reads between the lines.

Goodell indicated a change in venue could be in the works, rather than the lush tropical playground of Hawaii. He told the station he had discussed potential changes with NFL Players Association executive director DeMaurice Smith.

“I know players love to be in Hawaii, but we have to start with the quality of what we’re doing,” Goodell said. “If the fans are responding negatively to what we’re doing, we (had) better listen.”

Goodell was the commish who yanked the PB out of Hawaii a couple of years ago. And it sounds like he is contemplating this out loud again. It's no secret the players (and especially, their wives and families) want the game to be played here. But Goodell thinks the PB could generate more $$$$ if the game is played in other cities. So he floats the implication that Hawaii may not offer the ideal environment for the players to take the PB seriously.

But really, Goodell is only fooling the idiots in the crowd. I mean,.... look at the policies the commish has put into place which engenders this circus atmosphere among the players. First of all, Goodell was the one who decided to play the Pro Bowl a week before the Super Bowl, which automatically excludes all the SB participants from coming to Aloha Stadium. Thus, many of the players having elite seasons are absent from the Pro Bowl, which dilutes the idea that the game features the best of the best.

Secondly, the league set up computers on the sidelines at the Pro Bowl which allowed players to tweet right on the field,.... something that would be simply not be tolerated during a regular season/playoff game. In fact, players are not even allowed to tweet up to 90 minutes after a real game. With the NFL setting up and encouraging the players to be distracted from what's going on during the game, who's kidding whom about Goodell being serious about the players needing to put on a better quality show for the Pro Bowl?

[Ron Whitfield]

Re: A pathetic '12 Pro Bowl

I see it all so much more clearly now, the whole problem with the PB is... HAWAII.

Or maybe Goodfor0 should be punted.