Sunday, January 26, 2014

The What Bowl?

The Pro Bowl will be played today.  The Pro Bowl is the only all star game of the major sports that gets lower ratings than the regular seasons games.  One reason is that until 2010, it was played after the Super Bowl, an impossible act to follow.  Other sports have all-star games in the middle of their seasons, when interest in that sport is high.  When the Pro Bowl took place, most spectators have finished about six months of professional football and are in the middle of the NBA season, many are looking forward to the oncoming baseball season.  
In 2010 the game was moved to the week after the NFC and AFC championships, but that only assured that any star playing in the Super Bowl would not be available for the Pro Bowl. 
This year, instead the conferences playing each other, two of the NFL's all time greats, Jerry Rice and Deion Sanders have drafted sides just like on the playground.  There will also be no kickoffs and will have a 2 minute warning in each quarter.  Will this version of the Pro Bowl succeed?  NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell had wanted to cancel the game, but the players wanted it to continue.  If today's game is not a success, the game will become a footnote in NFL history.

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