The Pro Bowl, as we know it, will be no more. The players will be selected without regard to conference in voting by fans, coaches, and players. The selected players will then be assigned to teams through the Pro Bowl Draft. This draft will, of course, be televised on NFL Network. Pro Football Hall of Famers Jerry Rice and Deion Sanders will serve as alumni captains. They will be tasked with the drafting of the two teams. Each will be assisted by a fan from the NFL.com fantasy league. They may or may not be further assisted by the top offensive and defensive vote-getter in the Pro Bowl balloting. So, there will still be 43 players on each team but they will no longer be defined by their respective conferences.
There will be a bunch of other changes.
-the ball will change hands after each quarter. Each quarter will have a two-minute warning and the resulting two-minute offense
-no kickoffs. A coin toss will still determine which team is awarded first possession. The ball will be placed at the 25-yard line at the start of each quarter and after scoring plays.
-the kick return specialist will be replaced by an extra defensive back.
-defenses will be allowed to play "press" and "cover two" coverage. Previously, teams could only play "man' coverage.
-stopping of the game clock. Beginning at the two-minute mark of every quarter, if the offense does not gain at least one yard, the clock will stop as if it were an incomplete pass. This will force the offensive team to attempt to gain yardage toward the end of each quarter.
-more game clock. The game clock will start after an incomplete pass on the signal of the referee, except inside of the last two minutes of the two minutes of the first half and the last five minutes of the second half.
-a 35-second/25-second play clock will be adopted instead of the 40-second/25-second clock.
-the game clock will not stop on quarterback sacks outside of the final two minutes of the game.
There you go. Personally, I didn't think that any changes needed to be made to the Pro Bowl. The effort put forth in the game two years ago was pathetic. That couldn't happen again. At some point, you'd expect pride to kick in. That didn't happen then. If the players played the game like they have since 1951 there would be no problem. The people that bitch about the game in general miss the point of the game. It's an all-star game. It's an exhibition. No one should expect the effort that is given in games that mean something. The effort given two years ago was something closer to a walk-through. It was less than your typical practice. The Pro Bowl is supposed to be a fun game. It's supposed to be an enjoyable gathering of the best players in the game. Players have managed to make it an enjoyable, competitive game for over fifty years. It's only in recent years that people suddenly have an issue with the game. I'm a traditionalist. I like the game the way that it was. Moving the game to Hawaii about thirty years ago was a brilliant move. Getting rid of the AFC-NFC teams is a terrible move. I hate the idea of Chad Greenway possibly tackling Adrian Peterson. I don't know. Perhaps, this new game will grow on me. I hated it when the NFL Draft was moved from a weekend to a prime time event. Now, the new Draft format has kind of grown on me. Maybe, a couple of years from now I'll be loving this new Pro Bowl game. All I know now is that the new Pro Bowl is better than dropping the game completely.
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