From what little I remember, historically the NFL Pro Bowl has featured the best of the AFC facing off against the best of the NFC. It's their version of an All-Star game.
So I tuned in to check it out, and what did I see? No AFC and NFC, but rather Team Rice versus Team Sanders. What, pray tell, is going on here, and who are these Rice and Sanders people in charge of the teams? Might it be Jerry Rice and Deion Sanders? Or was it Condoleezza Rice and Colonel Sanders? Rice-a-roni vs Barry Sanders? Turned out it was Jerry and Deion, but while they may have been great players back in the day, how in the hell did their names wind up taking the place of entire conferences?
But then it got worse. It wasn't the AFC against the NFC. It was a mixed grab bag of players competing on both sides. Kind of like dumping a big bag of M&Ms on the floor and pushing half to one side and half to the other without sorting them out. My genius mind quickly discerned something was amiss when I saw guys that play on the same team during the regular season competing against each other in the Pro Bowl. And how hard do you think a linebacker is going to hit a running back that might be his best friend and/or roommate on road trips? Who came up with this brilliant game plan? That sort of strategy ranks right up there with calling Doctor Howard, Doctor Fine, Doctor Howard for a medical emergency.
It certainly wasn't always this way. In years of yore, playing in this game meant something to the participants. It was an honor to be there and they would give their best effort not only representing their teams, but for their fans as well. (Though most have probably long forgotten -- there was a time many years ago when the newly crowned Super Bowl champions would take on a college All-Star squad. That was a bad idea, and didn't work out so well. Men against boys, and the best team in the world taking on a hastily thrown together college squad. Guess who's going to win such a game every time? But it happened.)
To be fair, the All-Star games of other professional leagues have turned into shams themselves. In the NBA contest, playing any sort of defense is evidently verboten, so it turns into a slamma-jamma dunk-a-thon with ridiculous amounts of points scored.
In the NHL, the All-Star game is great for those that like to see a lot of goals scored. They don't check or play any defense either. Not so great for goalies that get lit up and embarrassed.
Major League Baseball recently tried to return some long lost relevance to their All-Star game by declaring the winning team would earn home-field advantage for either their American or National league representatives in the World Series that same year. Yet consider the scenario of a player elected to the All-Star team, but already has a guaranteed multi-year bazillion dollar contract, and also currently plays for a team that has no chance at making the playoffs. What's his motivation to even GO to the All-Star game, let alone play hard while he's there? It's only a few more bucks he doesn't need. And during the long grind of a MLB season, getting those 4-5 days off to kick back and relax probably starts to look pretty good. It happens.
Sure, many would say the players in the NFL Pro Bowl don't want to risk getting injured in a meaningless game. Further, their coaches and upper management back home probably fret about the same possibility themselves. These guys are getting paid mega-bucks, the franchises depend on them, and by God, if they're going to get jacked-up -- it's going to be on THEIR dime, dammit. I get that.
Yet that poses an enigma. Why even participate at all in such a game, if one isn't willing to play up to their capabilities?
Just last year, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell witnessed the embarrassing spectacle of the Pro-Bowl. That game was phonier than pro wrestling or a politician's campaign promises. It was so sissified, they could have played it without helmets or pads. The Commish was not happy and vowed change.
So here we are again this year. Still no blitzes, zone coverage, or hard tackling allowed. Players yukking it up on the field throughout the game. Forget the pads and helmets. They might as well dress these guys up in tutus and ballerina slippers and let them play with a nerf ball. And now it's got so bad, nobody seems to know what side they're supposed to be on. Instead of AFC vs NFC, it's now Rice vs Sanders? Pa-leeze. This isn't pro football. It's a comedy act worthy of a short run on the Vegas strip. Maybe.
The politically correct thing to say would be, "The Honorable Commissioner of this league perhaps needs to revisit his original concerns about the Pro Bowl and consider some adjustments".
The real life way to put it is, "Roger needs to get his head out of his overpaid ass, see the Hawaii farce for what it is -- and is not -- and either demand it becomes a real game once again, or scrap it entirely".
Because right now -- this is a joke with no punch line.
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