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NFL Mock Draft 2009 Draft of 2009 Lacks Star Power NFL Draft 2009: Getting Started Super Bowl Well Worth Tuning In For
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Prospects On Center Stage NBA Preview 2008/09: Final Call
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Pro Bowl? So Pro Bore... By Ron Jumper So the Pro Bowl came and went (Yes, the Pro Bowl was last Sunday. No really, I almost forgot about it to.) I will admit I was much more interested in watching the 2nd season of Lost, as I’m trying to catch up at a rapid pace before it gets too far into the 4th season. The 2nd season has all kinds of crazy things going on: the question mark, Hugo’s imaginary friend, the second hatch, etc. Why would I want to watch in jealousy as a bunch of millionaires trot around in Hawaii, not to have forgotten they are being paid for this? All that being said, it turned out to be a pretty good game. There was scoring (72 total points), a 4th quarter comeback, and a breakout performance from one of the game’s young stars (Adrian Peterson). When taking a peak at the ratings, there were still over 8 million people tuned in so it wasn’t completely irrelevant. The thing is the game isn’t normally that entertaining so you can’t say, “it’s always a great and I just don’t understand why people don’t watch it.” Going into the game, you were probably like me and thinking how it would be better if Brady and Moss were playing in the game so we could see them walk around with their heads down mutter things like “we just didn’t get it done and it is time to move on.” None the less, the game was still worth tuning in for. Going into the game, most of us would have thought the AFC would have been superior to the NFC so it was a little shocking to see how things played out. However, the AFC did jump out to a 24-7 lead. The weird part about it was that they stuck to the passing game with that large a lead. The AFC threw the ball 51 times and only ran the ball 10 times, which seems rather odd for an All-Star game. I bet Fred Taylor, Joseph Addai, and Willis McGahee were a little annoyed at how that whole situation played out. For goodness sake, Taylor had the most carries of anyone on the AFC roster with only 3 attempts. On the flip side, the NFC used the running game quite well. Adrian Peterson had a big day with 16 carries for 129 yards and 2 touchdowns. To almost average 10 yards per carry in the Pro Bowl is a little silly. Peterson is certainly establishing himself as one of most talented backs in the league. Personally, I don’t think there is a back in the NFL that is as big and fast as Peterson. He is so big and yet so shifty, while giving you a home-run threat as well. The problem is that we have no idea if he will be able to stay healthy over the course of 10 years. While I know it is in the nature of the position for running backs to get banged up, you would have to go back to Peterson’s freshman season to find a year when he stayed injury free. Only time will tell… (On another note, a lot of scouts are comparing Darren McFadden to Peterson. While this helps McFadden, because the NFL is a copycat league, I’m not so certain that is an accurate comparison. While scouts are drooling over DMAC, and rightfully so, I doubt McFadden will have anywhere near the impact Peterson did as a rookie.) So how do we make the Pro Bowl more interesting? That is the real question. The game itself doesn’t really matter, it is about making it appealing so fans buy into the hype and tune in. The game itself is usually entertaining, like this game was, but there was no sex appeal about the game and very few people were really interested in seeing what happened. I liked the idea of moving it up a week and having it on the bye week before the Super Bowl, but that runs the risk of replacing far too many players on short notice. What if the Cowboys had played the Patriots in the Super Bowl? They both would almost need whole new teams. You just simply can’t do this. So I thought of what I would do if I had control of the NFL, so here goes nothing. I would do away with the extra week before the Super Bowl. It is so pointless, as it turns people away from the game more than it helps “build up the hype.” Personally, I boycott ESPN for the week and refuse to even listen to Sirius NFL Radio in my car. Then, after the Super Bowl, I would give everyone a week to let the Super Bowl sink in. This year, with such a huge upset, the NFL needed some time to let everyone get used to the idea that the New York Giants are Super Bowl champions. Most importantly, it would serve as an extra week to market the game. You are probably wondering why I said take away a week before the Super Bowl and push back the Pro Bowl so we can market it more. Notice I said market it more, not blab about it and talk about nothing else on ESPN or Radio Talk Shows. I’m talking about commercials and ads, just to make sure you don’t forget to tune in if you’re a football fan. More importantly, it gives the players who played on a team deep into the playoffs time to rest and get healthy. If they had an extra week, Tom Brady and Randy Moss probably would have played in the game instead of taking the week off. That would be another storyline to build-up going into the game. Also, in my opinion, fans would feel a sense of “this is the last football game of the year, so I better tune in” as opposed to “oh yeah, the Pro Bowl” since it is right after the Super Bowl. Another key ingredient is to make a weekend of it, not just a game on Sunday. Have a QB Challenge, like you’ve seen high school and college players doing on ESPN2 in the last couple of weeks. Have any assortment of races or position competitions, so that it is covered on SportsCenter and people simply have to be hiding under a rock to not know the Pro Bowl weekend is going on. With all the festivities, there would be no way anyone could not know the about the game on Sunday or even forget about it. Lastly, I think there needs to be an incentive to win the game. Give the winning conference some kind of advantage, like a large chunk of change, an additional home game, or something. It always stands to reason that money makes the world go round. If you give the players incentives to really play, then that is when you will get trash talking during the week and all of that good stuff to make the game more appealing. I might be crazy, but it just might work. February 13, 2008 |
| NCAA Football | |
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Be Careful What You Wish For
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| NCAA Basketball | |
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Jumpology: My Bracket Jumpology: Scouting The Heavyweights Jumpology: Reviewing The Bracket
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