Sunday, January 27, 2019, the National Football Leagues’ all-star game was played in Orlando Florida. This consisted of the best players from each conference went head to head to show off their skills and put on a show for fans. This event was hosted by Verizon and televised by ESPN, around 8 million people tuned in to watch the clash of some of the best players in the league.
On Twitter, there was some negative feedback about the Pro Bowl because fans had said that the players do not care about the game and do not try in it. This lack of effort among players could happen for a few different reasons. The first being that the players are concerned about getting injured for the upcoming season which causes them to not want to go all out each play and protect themselves. Another reason behind players not caring as much in the Pro Bowl as they do in real games are the cash incentives, each player from the winning team of the Pro Bowl earns $64,000 while every player of the losing team earns $32,000. This is a minuscule amount for these top tier players who are used to making around $80,000 or more a game with more money made from sponsorships and endorsements. Other incentives are offered to players when their team does better in the regular season and the playoffs so players tend to disregard the Pro Bowl and not take it seriously.
The AFC completely dominated the NFC coming away with a 26-7 convincing victory. Patrick Mahomes walked away as the offensive MVP with 156 yards and 1 touchdown. The young Kansas City quarterback showed this season that he is the real deal. After leading his team to the AFC championship in only his second year in the league Kansas City can place their hope for the future in this young quarterback.
After the game, another outburst on Twitter happened when Jason Witten tried to pick up the Pro Bowl trophy and it broke in half. Fans had talked about how the NFL does not even care enough to get the players a real trophy instead of a plastic one, this also leads to more complaining about how the Pro Bowl is just a weak excuse to get more money from fans.
Due to the negative feedback that engulfed social media after the Pro Bowl, it is safe to say that the NFL is going to need to make some major changes to the format of this “all-star” game in order to keep viewership and ratings up!
I have heard a lot about this in the past. Honestly, I believe the Pro Bowl really is a waste of everyone's time. I certainly wouldn't blame players for not giving it their all when they go into this game. Why risk getting injured right before the season starts? No one wants that. The NFL isn't an organization I fully trust either, so I suspect that the Pro Bowl is a ploy just for the viewership. I'm curious to know more about your own thought and opinions on the issue!
ReplyDeleteThe pro bowl has become very pointless in past years and I really don't get the purpose of playing the game. I agree when you said that they show a lack of effort, but i guess if it's part of the sport I don't know how you can get rid of the game
ReplyDeleteGreat blog about the Pro Bowl. In my opinion, the Pro Bowl is really kind of pointless, its cool to see all the all stars come together and play the challenges, but it just seems over the years that the game just has no sentimental value anymore and you don't have to work that hard to become a pro bowler.
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