Polls Are Open

Voting for the 2015 NFL Pro Bowl is open.

The 2015 Pro Bowl will again be held one week before the Super Bowl at the site of the Super Bowl. That will be in Arizona. This will be the second year of the "unconferenced" Pro Bowl. They invented a new word to describe this new Pro Bowl format. All of the players selected by the voting willbe divided into two teams through a fantasy football-like draft. Team captains, Hall of Fame receivers  Cris Carter and Michael Irvin, will select those teams. Team Carter and Team Irvin will square off against each other in the 2015 Pro Bowl.

Last year was the first year of this new Pro Bowl format. Most consider the change a success as the game was more competitive than some of the previous games. Deion Sanders and Jerry Rice were the captains of the 2014 Pro Bowl teams. I was skeptical of the change since I didn't think that changes needed to be made. I think that many people forget that this game is an all-star game. An exhibition game. All-star games are rarely the most cleanly played games. I've never understood why anyone would expect real game effort in an all-star game. Now, the Pro Bowl game that forced these changes, the 2013 Pro Bowl, was pretty pathetic. There were instances in that game in which players gave less effort than they would give in a walk-through. It was quite sad. I just thought that the effort in that game was more an exception than a trend. There have been Pro Bowls for more than half a century and we get, arguably. one pathetic game.

As it turned out,I actually liked the changes. I think that the kickoff should be brought back but I doubt that happens due to safety concerns. I like the Hall of Fame captains selecting the teams. The Sanders-Rice draft was televised last year and it was pretty entertaining. I can imagine Cris Carter and Michael Irvin being even more entertaining.

Voting for the 2015 Pro Bowl has started.