Ah, the Pro Bowl. The all-star game that absolutely no one gives a shit about.
Even though no one gives a shit, the NFL insists on playing this game every year. And so, the most interesting part of it becomes the unveiling of the list of players who made the team. That happened today and the Green Bay Packers have five Pro Bowlers.
They are quarterback Aaron Rodgers, receiver Jordy Nelson, fullback John Kuhn, guard Josh Sitton and outside linebacker Clay Matthews.
This is Rodgers’ fourth Pro Bowl selection, Matthews’ fifth, Kuhn’s and Sitton’s second, and Nelson’s first.
Now, let’s get down to brass tacks.
Rodgers, Sitton and Nelson are deserving selections.
Matthews and Kuhn, not so much. Matthews has been badass lately, but he played like garbage for the entire first half of the season. Kuhn… we’re not really sure what he did to deserve a Pro Bowl nod.
But that’s the thing with the Pro Bowl. Fans account for one-third of the voting and let’s be honest. The majority of fans know right next to jack shit about football or the guys who are playing it well at any particular time. They vote on name recognition and Matthews and Kuhn both have that. Players also account for one-third of the voting and players always pick guys on reputation. If you were a boss two years ago, you’re probably getting a Pro Bowl nod this year.
We’ve said it a million times if we’ve said it once. This is the main reason the Pro Bowl is joke.
Remember when Jeff Saturday played center that one season in Green Bay and got benched for Evan Dietrich-Smith? Yeah, he was a Pro Bowler that year.
It is pretty fun to poke holes in these bullshit Pro Bowl rosters. We’ll be back with the Packers who got jobbed.
Here’s my arm-chair NFL commissioner statement of the day. The Pro-Bowl (or preseason, but not both) would be fixed if we implemented a second bye week as a reward to the conference that wins the Pro-Bowl.
This would 1) eliminate the voting problem. Fans would actually vote for the players that deserve to be in the Pro-Bowl for that respective year. 2A) Players would actually PLAY in the Pro-Bowl because 2B) the PB would actually matter as a game. 3) it would go a long ways towards helping the injury epidemic in the NFL. It would sure suck for the conference that doesn’t get the second bye week, however, it would not be the sole reason for whether or not they make it or not that year.
What does this even mean? How could a schedule ever be devised that ever game one conf an extra bye? The other team only plays 15 games? Dafuq?
Solid proposal. Taking after the MLB approach. I like it. Although I don’t know that a an extra bye week is the best solution. I can’t think of anything better off the top of my head, but I do agree that without some kind of incentive, nobody is going to give a rat’s behind about the game. I know I don’t right now
why don’t we just play the SB in the next season’s preseason? then we could have 3 bye weeks and skip the other stupid boring preseason games altogether, and lengthen the regular season to 18 games, with NO bye week! what a stupid idea that was, too! teams need to keep their established weekly rhythm going, this is not international soccer for crissakes.
Kuhn made the pro bowl? Seriously? Is that because he’s probably the last fullback left in the league and they needed to fill a roster spot?
In other news, there isn’t a single E.Wolf post on the entire front page of this site right now. Keep that shit up, Monty!
The other 4 o-linemen could all be considered snubs. E-Train and Cobb should be in there as well.
and no mason crosby, the comeback K of the year? what a travesty!