It’s that time of the year again, the National Football League Pro Bowl is back, but if we’re being honest with ourselves, the competition is nowhere near as exciting as it once was. Not even the soon-to-be league MVP Lamar Jackson will participate, as he opted out of the weekend a few days ago.
The views of the NFL’s All-Star game in 2023 — 6.28 million viewers — was the third lowest since 2000 and has alarmingly declined since 2014, according to Sports Business Journal. To put things into perspective, 11.4 to 13.4 million viewers across the States tuned in annually from 2010 to 2014.
It’s obviously difficult to make up a difference of four to five million people, but has commissioner Roger Goodell made the right changes so far? Is the Pro Bowl trending in a positive direction yet? Let’s dive into the logistics as of the last few years.
For the first time ever, challenges such as “best hands,” where some of the Pro Bowl receivers had to complete certain types of catches in the fastest time possible, were introduced. The NFL also added kick-tac-toe, precision passing, and the now-famous dodgeball tournament.
In May 2022, Goodell came out publicly and claimed that the league needs “another way to celebrate their players.” In awareness that something big needs to change for people to watch again, he announced that the 2023 games will have no pads but instead be played in the format of flag football.
This change surely affected the viewership, right? It did, for the worse. And there’s no exaggeration in that statement, because the last time this few people watched the Pro Bowl was in 2006.
After last year’s swing and miss from Goodell, there’s more changes coming to this year’s Pro Bowl. The league is introducing new events like a golf accuracy challenge, and most notably a Madden competition on Sunday before the flag football game.
Unless this year’s changes truly are drastic, people will continue to not care. It’s a shame to not celebrate these players properly, and I have some thoughts to improve exactly that.
First and foremost, the Pro Bowl weekend needs to go back to its original date, which was after the Super Bowl. Every year, at least some of the best players are missing from the Pro Bowl because they are preparing to play in the brightest stage. If the games happened a week or two after the Super Bowl, that would give players from all 32 teams a chance to rest and have some fun for the weekend.
On the topic of players, and as crazy as this might sound, fan voting should either be minimized or taken off completely. This will make it hard for players to get “snubbed,” as it’ll be less of a popularity contest and more of who played the best during the year. Let the coaches and players themselves figure out who makes the Pro Bowl.
Next, let’s just get rid of the actual game in its entirety. Goodell has gone half way there by making it flag football, since a regular game increases a player’s chance of injury. But some fans are annoyed by seeing their favorite players play only half-seriously, and consider it a wasteful three hours.
In terms of the events, keep the ones with good feedback from the fans, and try new things out. For instance, an alternative could be a seven versus seven tournament with only skill-position players, which could compensate for the “wow” factor that’s taken away.
Finally, add extra incentives to the skills challenges. Bragging rights are cool, but when money is on the line it’s a human instinct to set that competitive edge. That should definitely entice the players to play for something other than their pride, and hopefully begin a new era of an NFL world that actually cares about this celebratory weekend.
