You know, I used to be the only person I knew to get psyched up for the Pro Bowl. I'd get others interested too! Or at least, we'd have get-togethers with the game on, and I'd get people taking sides, cheering for things. Final football get-together of the year. A nice wind-down. I was the chief instigator and participant: a fervent NFL Pro-Bowl fan.
An now, for perfectly obvious reasons, I don't give even the slightest bit of a damn about it. I understand they've played it today, or they're playing now. I guess they have their reasons.
I miss it. I'd like to have it back again. My NFL Pro Bowl. I'm glad they moved it back to Hawaii! That's important to the chemistry of the game. But...the only reason for that game, the unique purpose it used to serve, was as a wake for the season. One last football afterparty. One last chance to watch, to get together with your DIE-HARDS - with your people who LOVE FOOTBALL. One last chance to care, to dissect the ups and downs highs and lows of the season, and to wind down for the long withdrawal with one last hit of methadone. That's not the first time I've used that metaphor, if you click on the label 'Pro Bowl.' Fact is, it's a damn apt metaphor.
Aired prior to the Super Bowl, none of that exists. No reason for the Pro Bowl exists. It's not a party. You can't hold that party there! NO ONE CARES THERE. We have the Super Bowl yet! The Pro Bowl doesn't exist. Not unless it airs after the Super Bowl.
Fuck.
Why don't they play it before, if it's so important to them to play it before, and then air it two weeks later on a delay? Doesn't the most cannily marketed and branded pro sport in the history of pro sports have any sense of occasion at all?
2 comments:
I feel ya. I mean, the only thing I can say for the Pro Bowl now is that the AFC sucks. Wait...I was going for "they play it for the joy of the game". I likened it to an all-expenses-paid academic conference... you're there because you're Awesome Smart, the Pro-Bowler of intelligence. And you don't have to pay for anything!! You just have fun and get drunk with the other all-stars, enjoy the free trip, and try to regain your excitement and sense of fun for the game.
I know that it was better for the fans when it was before the Big Game, but this way, the losers get an immediate consolation prize, a chance to shine one last time before the Real Party. And they can thoroughly enjoy Superbowl Sunday, resting on their laurels and all.
The biggest problem I have now is that Clay Matthews didn't get to play. I mean, all of the Superbowl Pro-Bowlers have to take a pass, even though only one of the Big Teams will take home a ring. At least before, the best guys on the Second Best team would have had that last hurrah.
I mean, the NFC pretty much dominates, anyway. But that's just expected.
I'm trying to figure out how to divvy up the positions on the Pro-Bowl of Intelligence teams. East/West is probably the easy best way to split into conferences, but who quarterbacks? The physicists, maybe? I have to assume that the wide receivers and tight ends will all be from philosophy depts.
Also - who are the fans? Who votes?
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