Question: what do half of the starting quarterbacks in the AFC have in common?
If you guessed “a lack of adequate pass protection” and “being abjectly inferior to Peyton Manning,” you would have missed out on the third correct answer — eight of the AFC’s 16 regular starting quarterbacks made the Pro Bowl this season.
The reason for this unusually high number of selections to the AFC’s All-Star team is “injury.” A total of three quarterbacks will actually be suited up for the game, which takes place the Sunday before the Super Bowl — Houston’s Matt Schaub, Tennessee’s Vince Young and Jacksonville’s David Garrard — all three of whom are replacements for original selections. One quarterback, Manning, is not playing because he is playing the next week in the Super Bowl.
That leaves Philip Rivers, Tom Brady, Ben Roethlisberger and Carson Palmer, all of whom voluntarily declined to play in the game due to claimed “injuries.” These claims are questionable at best due to the fact that all four quarterbacks played through the entire regular season and, in some cases, first- and second-round playoff games, emerging with nary a scratch from their final contests.
The only plausible explanation is that these players — and the franchises that they represent — have no desire to play and risk injury in a meaningless game. After a long and tough season, players simply do not want to continue sustaining damage to their bodies, especially when the potential risks of participation are much higher than the benefits.
This issue is simply the most significant of the many that beset the Pro Bowl, the NFL’s annual equivalent to an All-Star game. Traditionally played in Honolulu, Hawaii the week after the Super Bowl, the game has been beset by rapidly declining relevancy. Last year’s Pro Bowl scored extremely low TV ratings and ticket receipts. To put it simply, players and fans alike don’t care about the game.
In order to try and make the Pro Bowl a big deal again, the NFL chose to hold the event the week before the Super Bowl at the same location, Sun Life Stadium in Miami. It was hoped that the change would generate more buzz for the game. Also important was the fact that if the game were held at its regularly scheduled date, it would be competing head-to-head for viewers with such significant events as the NBA All-Star Game, the Winter Olympics and the Daytona 500.
The move was met with significant criticism. NBC analyst Al Michaels flatly stated that moving the date wouldn’t work. Various ESPN and Sports Illustrated columnists came to the same conclusion and I am inclined to agree. If you can’t even get the players to care, how can you possibly hope for anyone else to do so?
Reasons for the universal dislike of the Pro Bowl can be found when comparing it to the (fairly successful) All-Star contests in the other three major professional leagues. MLB plays a 162-game season and the NBA and NHL both play 82-game regular seasons. By contrast, the NFL plays a 16-game season and with good reason: every single game takes a much greater mental and physical toll on the athletes. In the context of a baseball, basketball or hockey season, playing in one extra game that occurs in the middle of the season is not a great burden — indeed, players see participation in these games as more of an enjoyable experience than a chore.
There is really only one possible solution to fix the farce that the Pro Bowl has become: abolish the game altogether. The point of the Pro Bowl is to honor the top performers at every position in the past season. Simply selecting the Pro Bowlers as per the current system and then not playing the game can accomplish this goal. Indeed, the way the game is conducted now simply diminishes the honor of being called All-Pro. When half of the starting quarterbacks in a given conference are Pro Bowlers, it diminishes the value of the selection and turns it into a joke.
While this is the only logical solution to fix this quandary, the reality is that the NFL will probably continue to conduct a game that no one has any interest in. As long as they can squeeze any revenue out of it, the farce that is the Pro Bowl will continue. I anticipate a day when scout-team players are starting and every position player in the league is a Pro Bowler, right after 30 non-Super Bowl franchises have held press conferences about breakouts of mass tendinitis.
Kabir Sawhney will probably be following the medical “difficulties” of third-string kickers. Tell him how this is a valuable use of time at ksawhney “at” stanford.edu.