Drop the Pro Bowl, bring in the skills competition

Last night the NFL had its pro bowl draft with hall of fame wide receivers Michael Irvin and Cris Carter selecting the teams. It was cool to see how these players crafted the teams and who they valued where. However, that is the most effort that will go into this game as if you tuned into last year’s pro bowl (not many did) you see that while it’s nice on paper, a post-season all-star game in the NFL just doesn’t produce a competitive game.

These games are more about joking around and making sure guys don’t get injured, which is completely understandable for the players. However, as someone who enjoys football I’d like to suggest this change for the league. Instead of doing a game for the Pro Bowl why not do a skills competition where you can separate positions and allow competitions such as best hands for wide receivers, accuracy contests for Quarterbacks, Kickers and Punters, Lineman one on one battles, and events for every position that allows them to portray their skills.

Players union should be all for this because it still allows the players to collect the Pro-Bowl bonus and not risk injury as well as open up another sponsorship opportunity for players who win these contests. Furthermore, it could drive up ratings for a game that has lost speed and has no real defense involved. Promoting this event would be easy pitting the best the NFL has to offer in competitions and could even have for example this year’s captains Irvin and Carter draft teams and keep track of number of wins to determine a winner. Every fan would be excited to see the best go head to head at their best skills rather than a half speed game where it looks more like a flag game.

Agree/Disagree with the NFL changing the Pro Bowl to a Skills Competition?

This article has been contributed by a member of the SK Featured Bloggers Club. It was originally published on the blog 'The Barry Sports Report' here.