Pro Bowl falls short of NFL gold standard

On Sunday, something rare happened to me. As I awoke, the clock read 1:09.

If my eyes opened at this time any other Sunday over the previous five months, I would've jumped out of bed furiously scrambling for belongings and the TV remote. This Sunday marked the first since the second weekend of September without an NFL football game.

Simply put, I'm an NFL junkie. No matter how many brews I had on Saturday night, I'm up a few hours before game time to scour newspapers, make bets, talk to other football junkies, fix my fantasy football lineup and get settled in to partake in a tradition, that to me, is more sacred than most holidays. But there was a football game on Sunday. The NFL Pro Bowl aired on ESPN at 8 p.m.

I'm an NFL junkie. But I didn't care.
And that got me to thinking. In 15 years, I'll still be a football fanatic. However, I will have a vast amount of additional responsibility in my life. If I don't care about the Pro Bowl now, I never will. And if a college student and self-proclaimed NFL junkie doesn't care about the game, a change should certainly be in order.

The intrigue of the early Pro Bowl matchups relied upon the rivalry between the AFC and the NFC. Now, there's not much separation between the leagues so the players have very little pride at stake.

It's widely accepted among players and coaches that the Pro Bowl will be less physical and less competitive. However, football is so inherently physical and violent that when you take these characteristics away, you're taking away the essence of the game.

In the 2010 Pro Bowl, nearly 40 percent of the players originally selected for the game did not play. During a commercial break of the Grammys, I switched on the game to see Vince Young. After watching Brett Favre probably lose years off his life trying to win a playoff game the week before, the last thing I want to watch is David Garrard scrambling around a backfield in which no one is really trying to tackle him. And when we look back in 20 years, will we actually consider Young and Garrard Pro Bowlers?

The All-Star game in baseball works because there is much less risk of injury, and of course, the game means something.

The NBA, which was built around marketing individuals, has the best All-Star game festivities. Skill and athleticism play a more paramount role in basketball. We're riveted by slam dunks and the prospect of Kobe guarding Lebron.

Football is built upon timing, rhythm, execution, and teamwork. So gathering 40 of the best players at their respective positions and putting them on the same team just doesn't do it. Players are more dependent on their system and their teammates.

The NFL is the gold standard for an efficiently run sports league. This is the one area in which they haven't surpassed the other leagues. So why keep it around just for the sake of doing so? Just because the other sports leagues have? Screw it. Be progressive.

Elect the All-Pro teams each season, and that's the end of it. No game.
Or, be even bolder. Move it to the preseason of the following season.
By August, people are yearning for pigskin. They've suffered through hours upon hours of mindless chatter between pitches to distract them from the otherwise clear fact that baseball is a rather slow sport.

The first televised preseason game each season is the "Hall of Fame" game. It takes place in Canton, Ohio in conjunction with Hall of Fame Inductions and is broadcasted on Monday Night Football. If the NFL were to move the game to Canton, it could create a media frenzy built around the historical aura of the Hall of Fame. You would have current stars sitting alongside Hall of Famers. NFL Films would go nuts. It would be a weekend of historical appreciation for fans and current players.

Now opponents of this idea will have two arguments. First, you can't pull these players away from their teams during training camp when they're trying to build chemistry with teammates. Well, in 2009 a 40-year-old Brett Favre showed up to training camp two weeks late and had the best season of his career with unproven wide receivers.

The second argument is that the owners won't go for this. They want control over their stars before the season starts. Understandable. What happens when Tom Brady tears his MCL in an exhibition game that Rex Ryan is coaching?

You could regulate the amount of snaps each player must play. Isn't it more risky to play a typical preseason game against players who are hungry, unproven and just trying to make the team? In the preseason, teams are trying different defensive schemes. In the Pro Bowl, only basic defensive schemes are used. Every Pro Bowlers main goal in the preseason is to stay healthy and get their reps in. The Pro Bowl style of play would provide a game-play style conducive for these goals. Fans will be excited to see their favorite stars for the first time in six months, and the game will be given relevance due to the historical events surrounding it.