Why the NFL should dump the Pro Bowl

The NFL and NBC Sports hope fans want to tune in to the annual Pro Bowl tonight at 7pm ET. Commissioner Roger Goodell keeps threatening to get rid of the game if the quality doesn't improve.  But, it doesn't seem like recent moves with the event have done anything to facilitate a better game.

Fan voting is a joke; Nothing more than a popularity contest conducted at a time when we have no idea who will have played an "all-star' caliber season. (This is the case with all of the major sports all-star balloting.)  On top of that, too many of the players fans DO vote for (translated: the ones they want to see in the game) end up NOT playing because they are in the Super Bowl-- which wasn't an issue when the Pro Bowl was the week AFTER the big game-- or, they claim injury.  I say "claim" because it seems to me that the league, which thinks the Pro Bowl is important enough to stage,  has made it quite easy for elected/selected players to opt out of the game using injury as the excuse.

When a guy gets bashed over the head with a champagne bottle (Trent Williams) or has knee surgery right after his final game (Robert Griffin III), the injury thing is legit.  But when a guy plays in the NFC Championship game and doesn't appear to have suffered any kind of injury that would prevent him from playing the following week (Tony Gonzalez, Matt Ryan) or you play through a sore knee all season and set a new season receiving yards record but beg off of the half-speed Pro Bowl showcase game (Calvin Johnson), one has to wonder whether this game is really worth anything.  What injury did Gonzalez suffer last week that allowed him to pull out of the Pro Bowl?  A bruised ego because his team didn't make the Super Bowl?

DUMP THE PRO BOWL!!! It's worthless.  The league knows it. The players know it. The coaches know it. The fans know it.  Just get rid of it, already. The quality of football is worse than a preseason game. Name an all-pro team each year, give them a free vacation to Hawaii and call it a day.

The Pistons play at Orlando tonight.  It's the final night of a week-long NBA League Pass "freeview" on DirecTV. Tip-off is at 6pm. How Brandon Knight, Andre Drummond, Greg Monroe, and crew perform will determine whether I change the channel at 7pm.