The NFL opened the polls this week for the 2016 Pro Bowl. The polls will remain open until Tuesday, December 15. Vote often. Vote wisely. The Pro Bowl players will be announced live on NFL Network on December 22.
The 2016 Pro Bowl will return to Hawaii. It will be played at Aloha Stadium in Honolulu on January 31. One week before Super Bowl 50 will be played in Santa Clara, California. The Pro Bowl should stay in Hawaii. It just feels right.
For the third year the Pro Bowl will be "unconferenced." They even came up with a new word to describe the current format. Players will be selected without regard to conference in voting by fans, players, and coaches. The players will then be assigned to Pro Bowl teams by a "playground-style" selection process. Those teams will start with a Hall of Fame receiver. Jerry Rice will have a team. Michael Irvin will have a team. Each will start their teams with an offensive and a defensive captain. Those players will come from the top-two vote getters on either side of the ball. Each team's drafting decisions will be further supplemented by an NFL.com fantasy football champion. So, each Pro Bowl team will start with a drafting brain-trust of four. One Hall of Famer. One offensive captain. One defensive captain. One fantasy football champion. Each set of four decision-makers will select their teams of Pro Bowlers "playground-style." The Hall of Famers will have their names tagged to the respective teams and supposedly have final say on draft decisions. It's serious business. I think that the fantasy football champions should be forced to suit up and play in the game. That would be a hoot.
The Pro Bowl has received a lot of criticism over the years for the effort given by the players. While I agree that the effort was especially poor the year before the "unconferenced" changes were made I think that most people forget that this has always been an exhibition game. It's an all-star game. That sort of affair will never approach the energy of a real game and it's simply foolish to think that it should. I never thought that the game needed to be changed at all but I've found this new format to be surprisingly fun. I've also found it interesting that most of the people that complain about the game still watch it. If the game is that difficult to watch don't watch it.
My major Pro Bowl complaint involves the voting for outside linebackers. The Pro Bowl rosters are dominated by 3-4 outside linebackers. The sack numbers put up by these players draw all of the votes. That leaves the 4-3 outside linebackers on the outside of the game. Lavonte David, DeAndre Levy, and Anthony Barr are some of the best defensive players in the game. Yet really have no shot at Pro Bowl recognition because of the sacks generated by linebackers that rush the passer far more often than not. This is made even more ridiculous by the Pro Bowl rules that prohibit blitzing. So, the outside linebackers that get voted onto the Pro Bowl rosters for their pass rushing talents aren't allowed to rush the passer in the game. These pass rushers do deserve to be in the Pro Bowl but they should be allowed to do what got them there. They should go to the game as pass rushers, defensive ends if you must label them, but they shouldn't go at the expense of the terrific, traditional outside linebackers that do a lot of everything.
The polls are open. Vote wisely.
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