A Brief And Obvious Point About The Pro Bowl

Sad On Many Levels

There is no reason for it to exist, and it will stop being played in our lifetime.

No fantasy game gimmick, no MTV tie-in, no tropical or foreign locale, no tweak to the voting, and no valuation to the winner will prevent the demise of the Pro Bowl.

It is the very worst of a very bad breed of sporting event that no longer needs to exist, because we now have the ability to see all of the games and all of the players. The only reason the game used to exist was because there was some clear fan interest in seeing guys from outside of your area, and it used to be hard to see those guys.

Now, thanks to technology and the wall-to-wall coverage of the league, you are easily able to see more of a team that's 3000 miles away then the one that is closest to you. And all of that assumes that you actually wanted to see those guys play in a no-contact quarter-speed no one get hurt or care event.

It still gets ratings, of course, because the market for professional football is dramatically underfed in this country. If the NFL introduced secondary and tertiary leagues (with, be still my heart, relegation to end the Daniel Snyder problem once and for all), with the same rules, in B and C markets, with a modicum of recognizable names (and there are plenty of recognizable names who are not in the NFL right now)...

Here, I'll make it easy. Just revive the USFL. Cost you, what, $3?

Well, it would crush MLB and, probably, NBA regular season games in the ratings. With a minimum amount of poaching on the A league. But anyway, back to the Pro Bowl.

Eight Niners -- eight! -- were named to the game. None will be playing. No one wants to play; everyone wants to be named. This will not be a new phenomenon.

So why not just run a computer simulation (the electrons will, I promise, try harder) and be done with it?