Pro Bowl Date

[Taryn]

I blinked a few times when I saw that the date for the Pro Bowl would start Super Bowl week... Wracked my brain to figure out why they didn't wait until after the big game to do it as they have done for so many years... Then I realized that the Sunday after the SB is the second/third (if you count opening ceremonies as the first day) day of the Winter Olympics, then the pieces fell into place...

Though here's the question.. Since it is a week before the Super Bowl, will the players of the two teams, playing in 7 days, be taking their turns on the field or will they be sitting on the sidelines watching, as there is a chance that they could get injured during the game, and possibly cost them the title of being Champions? As I don't remember them shifting the date of the Pro Bowl 4 years ago as that was the last time the Winter Olympics happened, I am wondering how they are going to handle this situation, because I for one would think the coaches of the SB teams would be rather upset if their players picked for the PB got hurt bad enough to be pulled out of the SB...

Just a question or two and a few thoughts about it..

[Alex]

More than likely I would think they would sit it out because part of the probowl is practicing with the team and as most know the schedule for the superbowl has so much preparation for each team that missing a full week could be deadly especielly since it would be a key player. So don't plan on seeing players from the SB teams playing

[Taryn]

That's what I was thinking, but I look at it this way as well... These players worked their asses off to be picked to be in the Pro Bowl, but also for those two teams worked their asses off to get to the Super Bowl... Usually the Pro Bowl happens after the Super Bowl, but because the Winter Olympics has been shifted to every 2 years after the Summer Olympics due to the network executives not only were dealing with upset show producers and actors, but also the audience who had to wait to see their shows and also things got a little to hectic and someone on the Olympic Board got this wild idea to separate the two... ~shakes head~

To which, everything got screwed up in the process and this is one of the casualties, which is sad, because to me and I think some others might feel the same, the Pro Bowl is the last HURRAH, the last time they get to play football and do it for fun and for the fans, and those fans who get the tickets each and every year go to see their team players play the game.. Not for the full game, but in some instances that has been known to happen due to injuries sustained in either last game of the season, postseason or in the Super Bowl...

These players though who fought to be chosen, don't get that option to play if they are going to be in the Super Bowl and there is not going to be another game after their big game and in some ways that's not right, not to the fans or the players.... Though they did get some advance warning right before their season started, but still... It sucks, IMHO... Maybe next year they will go back to the regular way of playing football, preseason, regular season, postseason, Super Bowl and then finally the one game that might be more fun and exciting than the Super Bowl at least to some fans out there, the Pro Bowl... Then again, someone might get a wild hair up their asses and decide that it's a great way to start off the Super Bowl week and keep it this way for good.. That might actually be the time I write a letter to Roger Goodell and tell him about his decision of such a move and also add a petition from those fans from around the world, because I am sure some of those stationed overseas would like to see it back to normal as well... At least then, they can't say that all the fans wanted it this way.. ~sweet smile~

[Alex]

I could not disagree with you more. If you look at the pro bowl and SB players there has been a recent absence. And in previous years who among fans has the cash to go all the way to hawaii? Bring it to the states give the fans a chance to see the game live. I am a hard core football fan that HAS played football bring the game to the people move the game up earlier and make it a part of the SB machine! The rating should go up. The attendance the money through the roof.  For the fans when has anyone gotten a better chance to see this many great players live before now? Never.   As for the players who miss out bc they are playing in the SB.  Think about it.   THEY ARE PLAYING IN THE SB! The greatest honor every little kids dream that has ever played the game that has ever had the taste of metal in there mouth after hitting some one so hard they made the person getting hit a retard. Let the greatest football game ever made be the shining pinnacle to leave the season on bc what does every remember about last year? Was it some pro bowler scoring a td? Or was it Big ben making an unbelievable pass to Holmes that made an unbelievable catch to win the greatest game ever played.  Point blank the NFL made the right call

[RAGNAR]

I believe it was a good call bringing the PB to the continental US.

I believe it was a bad call scheduling the PB before the Superbowl.

[Taryn]

The one thing I am glad about this decision is that the Pro Bowl got moved to Florida from Hawaii, I am in complete agreement with that...

I still say it's a bad call to have the Pro Bowl before the Super Bowl...

The Pro Bowl is the specifically picked players from both the NFC and AFC... Both sides against one another and only at the end of the Pro Bowl will we truly know if the AFC is stronger than the NFC or vice versa... To end the season with the Super Bowl, all anyone will remember is the team that won the Super Bowl and those who played in the Pro Bowl and won that game will be lost in the celebration of the Super Bowl Champions who won that game... The side who won the Pro Bowl probably won't be remembered... If it is, it will be more like an afterthought...

Now, if everyone wasn't scared to show a game during the Winter Olympics, then they should show the Pro Bowl the week after the Super Bowl as they did in 2006 and 2002, the Winter Games started the Friday before each of the Pro Bowl games of those two years... The reason the dates of the Pro Bowl was held a week before the Winter Olympics began, was after 9/11/01, the football season shifted by a week, and they kept that schedule every since... ~shakes head~ At least they did bring it to the continental US, where it is more accessible than Hawaii ever was.. But someone should have the balls to go up against the Olympics, as I do believe there are more football fans out there willing to watch this game, the true AFC-NFC Pro Bowl game that has been going for 50 years... Scary thought, that it's been that long...

~smiles a bit~ Yes, I am passionate about football, as I have been born, raised and soaked in it from the time I was a young child to where I am now... And to me, at least, change of this magnitude makes things feel wrong and that we didn't fully get to have the season we thought we would get...

**edited to fix a small oops on my end**