Despite being literally the worst "All-Star" game of all the major sports, the NFL's Pro Bowl continues to dominate the ratings of All-Star games. Baseball's All-Star game has incentive for victory because the winning conference gains home field in the World Series. Baseball also offers fans a home run derby the night before. Hockey adopted a fantasy draft format to select their teams and they hold a skills competition before the game. Along with their All-Star game, the NBA holds a bunch of skills competitions and a developmental league game. NASCAR has an All-Star race seeded by race and qualifying results and if you don't make it in that way, you can race your way in before the actual race. The only thing about the race that matters is winning, so drivers are more reckless because they don't have to worry about losing points to other drivers.
Being the dominant force in American professional sports, the NFL is used to being the big dog. They're dropping the ball on this one. Right now their ratings are still higher, but they're falling and the other leagues are gaining on them. The NFL's decision in 2007 to ditch the Pro Bowl Skills Competition is baffling to me. They abandoned the whole "weekend" aspect of the Pro Bowl and made it into a singular event. The NFL could profit from showing fans to the fun, relaxed side of players. Instead, the NFL chose to show the fans the marginally exciting game. The players are showing their fun, relaxed side. The only problem is that it's in a situation where the fans are used to seeing the players leave their hearts on the field. Now, they're shown truly not caring. It's a bad image for the league.
If the NFL doesn't do something drastic, the Pro Bowl will be a thing of the past. It's already showing signs of failing. The NFL's decision to move it to a week before the Super Bowl instead of a week after seems like a desperation heave to garner viewers. It's a crass move that puts ratings over quality. The NFL doesn't care that the players from the Super Bowl teams don't participate in the Pro Bowl. They don't care that some players will have phantom injuries and drop out. Fans have put up with it in the short term, but as time goes by and the product becomes more and more inferior, the Pro Bowl will die a slow death.
There are issues facing making the Pro Bowl more interesting. The return of the skills challenge is definitely an easy way to garner some interest, but that doesn't fix how awful the game is. The first thing the league needs to do is move the game back to where it was, a week after the Super Bowl. This gives players 3 weeks to rest after the season and it gives the Super Bowl players an opportunity to participate. These players are the most marketable to the average person because more than half of the country watches the Super Bowl. If you have more participation from the people initially voted in, the games will be inherently more interesting.
The league also needs to do something to enhance competition during the game. They can't adopt a system like baseball where the winning conference hosts the Super Bowl. The Super Bowl is a much more lucrative event than the World Series and requires 5+ years of planning to host one. The NFL needs to come up with creative ways to motivate the players to care about the game. I've tossed some ideas around in my head, and this is what I've come up with:
Skills Challenge/Voting Change
Bring back the Skills Challenge, but give meaning to it. The league should also continue current voting practices, but change how some players make the Pro Bowl. Here's how it'd work:
The top 2 vote-getters for every position are locked in for each conference. For example, Rodgers and Brees are the top 2 vote getters for the NFC, they're locked in. Use the Skills Challenge to lock in the final roster spot. The Skills Challenge will consist of the top 3 vote-getters not locked into the game for positions (4 for WRs because 2 will qualify) competing for the final roster spot. For QBs it will be an accuracy and distance contest, for OL it will be a one-man sled race, for DL it will be a strength competition, WRs a catching competition, RBs and DBs a speed competition, and LBs an obstacle course. The losers get a nice Hawaii vacation and they get to participate in a flag football game with the 2 remaining QBs as the captains.
Making the Actual Game Competitive
The game itself will be harder to make more competitive. Like I said before, it's hard to make the game more exciting because there's nothing on the line. Win or lose, the players get paid. My idea is modest and can easily be implemented. Give out an award for each position. Best QB, best LB, best WR, etc. It will make each position more scrutinized and give the players something to play for. It won't make the game the most compelling game ever, but it will add a twist to it.
The fans deserve better. We made football the most popular sport in America, the least they could do is make the game more exciting for us.
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