These ideas can range from just about anything, to just about anything else. What better way to prove that point is to start off with something that is on almost nobody's mind at the moment. The NFL Pro Bowl.
In recent years there has been a certain degree of disenfranchisement about the Pro Bowl. The players aren't playing hard enough, the games don't matter, they are just trying to not get hurt. And those people are absolutely right. The main reason the players want to get to the Pro Bowl is a free trip to Hawaii and whatever bonuses they receive from contract incentives, both of these are earned the second they stop off the plane in Honolulu. Sure, for some people it's a once in a lifetime opportunity to play with the active legends of the game, but the game always seems to be at a little slower pace and not as hard hitting. The result is a huge burden on trying to make the event itself more interesting. Trying to hype it up with fantasy draft boards and other things that most fans just don't care much about.
But there I was just the other day watching the US. woman's curling team on a channel I couldn't identity other then it was obviously an NBC affiliate. Rooting for people I hardly knew in a sport I know nothing about. It occurred to me for reasons I couldn't begin to understand, that the NFL shouldn't be trying to have a single event for the pro-bowl, they need to have a series of events, not so unlike the Olympics. The Olympics are capable of drawing in millions of viewers to sports many people simply don;t normally watch. They love the stories of individual persaverence and rooting for their country, so I charged myself with the task of infusing those aspects of the Winter games into the single sport of football.
Welcome to the 2015 NFL Pro-Bowl Combine!
Over the 5 days coverage from beautiful Hawaii, you will see all your favorite players competing against one another in basic combine events like bench presses and 40 yard dashes, to unique events such as one may see on Sports Science where a Defensive End would be timed as they spin around 3 padding dummies and tackle a manikin Quarterback. Quarterbacks would have accuracy and distance throw competitions. Offensive Lineman would have the equivalent of a Tractor pull but with pushing tackle dummies. Corner-backs would would have swat down competitions. The winner of each even wins points for their conference (or division), receives individual "medals" (complete with paycheck bonuses) and the coverage for said events lasts over the entire week, not just one 3 hour game the week before the Superbowl.
Sure, the ratings for any single event probably won't be all that impressive, save for perhaps the Quarterback events, but I feel that you would get a whole lot more effort from each individual who goes to the Pro Bowl a lot more incentive to actually do something once they are there would be reflected and allow for days of programming with decent ratings. Add to that hours of sports coverage for that nights sports center to break up what currently is just a 134 hour Superbowl pregame. Add in the fact that the draft combines are just a month after the super bowl, the interest in both may be perked up to see how some of the new rookies shape up against veterans in some of the events. Questions like "Can a 32 year old vet still bench press like a 22 year old college kid?" would become common during the week. Plus, you get the benefit of having true head to head match up comparisons over the years. "Sure, Richard Sherman says he's the greatest, but will he put up or shut up at this weeks combine when he'll have to try and break Champ Bailey's record of 13 swat-downs in the 1 minute drill he pulled off 6 years ago?"
The Pro Bowl is becoming more and more laughable as players try to maximize competition while minimizing injury when there incentive to do so is naught, I think an event style combine is a great way to alleviate the injury concerns (admittedly, not 100%, but a lot) and to allow good honest competition between elite athletes to shine through.
But there I was just the other day watching the US. woman's curling team on a channel I couldn't identity other then it was obviously an NBC affiliate. Rooting for people I hardly knew in a sport I know nothing about. It occurred to me for reasons I couldn't begin to understand, that the NFL shouldn't be trying to have a single event for the pro-bowl, they need to have a series of events, not so unlike the Olympics. The Olympics are capable of drawing in millions of viewers to sports many people simply don;t normally watch. They love the stories of individual persaverence and rooting for their country, so I charged myself with the task of infusing those aspects of the Winter games into the single sport of football.
Welcome to the 2015 NFL Pro-Bowl Combine!
Over the 5 days coverage from beautiful Hawaii, you will see all your favorite players competing against one another in basic combine events like bench presses and 40 yard dashes, to unique events such as one may see on Sports Science where a Defensive End would be timed as they spin around 3 padding dummies and tackle a manikin Quarterback. Quarterbacks would have accuracy and distance throw competitions. Offensive Lineman would have the equivalent of a Tractor pull but with pushing tackle dummies. Corner-backs would would have swat down competitions. The winner of each even wins points for their conference (or division), receives individual "medals" (complete with paycheck bonuses) and the coverage for said events lasts over the entire week, not just one 3 hour game the week before the Superbowl.Sure, the ratings for any single event probably won't be all that impressive, save for perhaps the Quarterback events, but I feel that you would get a whole lot more effort from each individual who goes to the Pro Bowl a lot more incentive to actually do something once they are there would be reflected and allow for days of programming with decent ratings. Add to that hours of sports coverage for that nights sports center to break up what currently is just a 134 hour Superbowl pregame. Add in the fact that the draft combines are just a month after the super bowl, the interest in both may be perked up to see how some of the new rookies shape up against veterans in some of the events. Questions like "Can a 32 year old vet still bench press like a 22 year old college kid?" would become common during the week. Plus, you get the benefit of having true head to head match up comparisons over the years. "Sure, Richard Sherman says he's the greatest, but will he put up or shut up at this weeks combine when he'll have to try and break Champ Bailey's record of 13 swat-downs in the 1 minute drill he pulled off 6 years ago?"
The Pro Bowl is becoming more and more laughable as players try to maximize competition while minimizing injury when there incentive to do so is naught, I think an event style combine is a great way to alleviate the injury concerns (admittedly, not 100%, but a lot) and to allow good honest competition between elite athletes to shine through.
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