New Pro Bowl would include two fans in player draft

New Pro Bowl would include two fans in player draft

Posted by Mike Florio on July 26, 2013, 10:36 PM EDT


Big changes could indeed be coming to the most meaningless NFL game of the year.

In a poll posted by the league at NFLFanHuddle.com, a device used by one of the league’s marketing groups to get feedback from fans, a question is raised containing detailed information regarding potential changes to the Pro Bowl.

“The NFL is proposing changes to its 2014 Pro Bowl,” begins the question that was forwarded to PFT by a reader who requested anonymity.

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.

The poll then asks the fans who respond to gauge their level of interest, from “very interested” to “somewhat interested” to “a little bit interested” to “not at all interested.” (We’ll conduct the same poll below.)

This meshes with reports that a draft format “may happen” this season, and the involvement of two fans would give the Pro Bowl the reported “game show” feel.

Finally, a separate poll asks the fans to rank in order of preference the potential name of the new Pro Bowl: (1) Pro Bowl: The Players’ Game; (2) Pro Bowl: All-Star Pick-Up Game; (3) Pro Bowl: Player Selection Draft; (4) Pro Bowl: All-Star Fantasy; and (5) Pro Bowl: All-Star Fantasy game.
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Roger Goodell needs to eat a dick. This is NHL-level mismanagement.

The NHL did this same stupid shit by briefly changing their all star game to "International Team" versus "North American Team." Dumb.

Conference v. Conference. Stop messing with what works.

Actually I don't think the pro bowl works as is right now.

Other than the fan participation, I wouldnt mind these proposed changes. One benefit eliminating the conference deliniations would produce is I think we'd have less snubs and less players making it that don't deserve it. A few years back the AFC had QBs like Vince Young playing because of health and a dearth of QB talent. It would have better if they could have picked a more deserving NFC QB who otherwise didn't make it instead.

I mean truthfully, there's no conference loyalty among fans anyway. No one is yelling at their TV saying, "NFC! Wooooo!"

However, I do see two downsides. One, while no one cares about conferences per se, it does nonetheless give fans a modicum of rooting interest in the game because you would tend to root for the team that has players from your favorite team. This diminishes that because there is potential for players from your favorite team on both sides. Then again, even as the game currently stands I couldn't care less who wins. I have a vague sense of rooting for the MFC but ultimately I really don't care.

The other downside is that teammates might wind up competing against each other. At first glance that doesn't seem like a big deal but imagine the day when Aaron Rodgers gets seriously injured for instance because Clay Matthews sacked him too hard. Pretty awkward. Which leads to another problem: if they think there's a problem with players giving effort now, just wait til they see players trying to tackle or sack teammates.

Well, right, the NFL Pro Bowl just doesn't generate a lot of interest anyway, but I wouldn't call it a bad format. People just don't care.

But for the reasons you've outlined, this is a horrible idea.