In an effort to draw more interest and legitimize the Pro Bowl, the NFL, in it’s infinite wisdom, has decided to move the game to the weekend before the Super Bowl and play the game at the Super Bowl site.  I’ve got a few problems with this new arrangement.

First of all, if you play the Pro Bowl before the Super Bowl, you assure that you won’t have any players from the Super Bowl teams participating in the Pro Bowl.  Now what sense does it make that the best players from arguably the best teams not participate in the Pro Bowl?  How is that adding any legitimacy to the game?

Secondly, you move the game out of Hawaii to the site of the Super Bowl.  Most, if not all players selected to the Pro Bowl, see the trip to Hawaii as a reward; a kind of a bonus.  They take their families or take teammates or coaches as a thanks for the their hard work throughout the season.  From ESPN’s article citing the players’ desire to keep the game in Hawaii:

One thing is clear, many of the NFL’s top stars are unsure about the Pro Bowl being shipped to the mainland.

“I just think you take away from everything the Pro Bowl means,” Lewis said Tuesday. “I don’t understand it all.”

The Baltimore Ravens linebacker, who played college football at the University of Miami, said he would “probably not” play next year’s game if selected.

Lewis, making his 10th Pro Bowl trip, said many players live or visit Florida often, so playing there wouldn’t necessarily be a reward.

“That’s no vacation,” he said. “That’s what we regularly do. You don’t want to go to the Pro Bowl and do what you regularly do. You want to come over and do something different. You want to tour the islands and bring the kids over here to see something different.”

Of course it’s an honor to be selected by the fans, coaches and peers to be considered among the best at what you do and that acknowledgment should be reward enough.  But I get it.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m not crying for the millionaires who won’t get a free trip to Hawaii, but it seems like players won’t participate if it’s in a regular NFL city.  Are we really going to get a better game if the best of the best don’t play?

Next season, Miami will host the Pro Bowl and Super Bowl.  That’s not too bad I guess.  But what happens in 2012 when Indianapolis hosts the festivities?  Not much of a treat pack up the family, as many Pro Bowlers do, and head to Indy in late January, is it?  Where would you rather go?

Indianapolis, host of the 2012 Super Bowl or Hawaii???

Normally, the network that televises the Super Bowl gets the option to buy the rights to televise the Pro Bowl.  CBS, which will be broadcasting the 2010 Super Bowl, apparently declined the option.   ESPN has bought the rights to televise the game next year and will be hyping it endlessly throughout the season.

Do you think the move to the week prior to the Super Bowl has anything to do with the fact that ESPN will be televising the 2010 game?  I hate to throw conspiracy theories out there, but virtually no one watches the Pro Bowl when it’s played after the Super Bowl.  I agree with Commissioner Roger Goodell who called it “anticlimactic.”  By moving it to the week before, it is certain to get more hype and attention since everyone is still is full-blown football mode, but at what expense?  You won’t have the best players from the best teams playing.  You’ll have even more players turning down the right to play.

Hey NFL and Commissioner Goodell, stop trying to turn the Pro Bowl into something that it’s not and give everyone their all expense paid trip to Hawaii.  Aloha!

BOOM!!!

If the Bears are to make the playoffs, they will need some help.  It turns out that all of the teams that we shoudl be rooting for are underdogs and will need at least one upset to keep hope alive heading into the game on Monday night. 

As winter’s grip tightens on Chicago this weekend, there will be no better place to hunker down and watch the games that will directly impac the Bears’ playoff chances before the Monday night tilt with the hated Pack.

Atlanta at Minnesota – hopefully with half the Williams Wall down, Michael Turner and the Atlanta Falcons can run wild on the Vikings to keep their Wild Card and the Bears’ NFC North hopes alive. 

The odds might be against the Bears, but ESPN analyst Trent Dilfer believes they will overtake the Vikes for the division title:

“I went out on a limb … a very thin limb,” Dilfer said. “But I wanted to be the first to put it out there.  Two reasons: One, I just know the Vikings’ history of sliding toward the end of December.  They have a great opportunity to erase that history, but they have a tough road against the Falcons and Giants.”

Other games that keep the faint Wild Card hopes alive:

Baltimore at Dallas -rookie Joe Flacco leads a resurgent Ravens offense while Ray Lewis continues to anchor the ferocious Ravens defense.  With an injured Marion Barber and Tony Romo nursing a sore back,  Dallas’ offense will have a tough time moving the ball against a stout Ravens Defense.

San Diego at Tampa Bay – LT and the Chargers still have a shot at the AFC West division title with a win and Bronos loss, so no lack of motivation for the Super Chargers.   Tampa has faltered of late and has their own playoff hopes hanging in the balance. 

Philadelphia at Washington – the Eagles ride a hot Donovan McNabb into DC to take on the fading Redskins.   Can barely remember the McNabb benching a few weeks ago.

BEAR DOWN!!!

I’ve been criticized for a few of my choices but I stand pat on how I think this season will play out. Here is the list that I submitted to the group:

You can click the link at the top to see the final standings reached by the collective group. I will tell you that I’ve taken some criticism for putting the New York Giants at #27. However, everyone seems to forget that the Giants struggled until they got hot at the end of last season. People also seem to forget that their pass rush is what got them a Super Bowl win and they now don’t have their two best pass rushers. I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if Eli Manning goes back to being the slightly mediocre quarterback he was before the end of last season. History also suggests that every representative of the NFC that has gone to the Super Bowl in recent memory does not even make the playoffs the next season.