As an NFL fan, I get annoyed every year when people complain about how lame the Pro Bowl. They say the players don't even try, they say it doesn't matter. They compare the Pro Bowl to the other all-star games from the NBA, the NHL, and MLB. But those sports are very different from the very violent NFL.
The most obvious difference between the 4 major all-star games is the risk of injury. Football is a violent sport where numerous injuries occur in every single game. Players are lucky to be uninjured after a grueling 16 game regular season. Just take a look at any team's IR list. My team (Chargers) lists 12 players on the IR list, or about 23% of the opening day roster. Not only are injuries more common, they're also more severe. A player with a torn ACL will have a difficult time ever getting back to the form they were before the injury. Injuries are a big factor as to why the average career length of an NFL player is 3.5 years.
There's the case of former Patriots running back Robert Edwards. Edwards was drafted in the 1998 NFL draft and had an amazing year, rushing for over 1,100 yards. His great year was rewarded by being invited to play in the NFL Rookie Flag Football game during the Pro Bowl weekend. Despite the lack of tackling, Edwards blew out his knee making a cut and tore his ACL, MCL, and PCL. He was told that he was lucky to ever walk again. Fortunately he was able to walk again and eventually went back to playing football. But he was never the same player again and bounced around different NFL and CFL teams before retiring.
Knowing the tale of Robert Edwards, why would anybody risk their career on a meaningless game?
On the subject of meaningless, should the NFL make the Pro Bowl mean anything. Short answer, no. Long answer, no way Jose. The only league that has it's all-star game mean anything is MLB. The league that wins the All-Star Game gets home field advantage during the World Series. To me, that's an awful way to make the game "meaningful." First of all, I don't think it gives much incentive to most of the players since there's a slim chance they'll get to play in the World Series anyways. Second of all, it unfairly punishes the team that ends up getting the short stick through no fault of their own. I believe the team with the better regular season record should get home field advantage, regardless of what happens in the All-Star game. The decision should be based on the team's own merits.
In fact the only way that the MLB All-Star game can have an effect on the World Series is by being placed in the middle of the season, which is something that I don't get. The NFL Pro bowl is the only all-star game that takes place at the end of the season. It doesn't make sense to honor players for their "great years," halfway through the year! Voting for the MLB/NBA/NHL all-star games begins about a fifth through the season, ridiculous! I thought that Pro Bowl voting starting during Week 8 was bad enough. By waiting until the end of the year, the NFL has the best voting system. Though many would argue that it doesn't matter when voting starts since it's just a popularity contest anyways. Probably true.
I believe one thing that the NFL can do to make the Pro Bowl more exciting is to bring back the skills competition. All the other major sports league have theirs, the NBA Slam Dunk Contest, the MLB Home Run Contest, the NHL Slapshot Contest, etc. Who wouldn't like to see how far Brady and Rodgers can throw? Or who has better hands, Calvin Johnson or Fitzgerald? Or who's the strongest linemen out there? C'mon NFL, bring it back!
In the end, the NFL's all-star game situation is unique and could use some changes to improve but it does not need to mimic what other all-star games are doing.
Update: NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell was also upset at the performance of players at the Pro Bowl (
http://espn.go.com/chicago/nfl/story/_/id/7542806/nfl-commissioner-roger-goodell-says-ceasing-pro-bowl-consideration). Hopefully he'll consider bringing back the skills competition.
