The NFL's annual pro bowl occurred yesterday, and you can be forgiven if you thought you were actually watching one of the practices. Tackling went by the wayside, with whistles being blown as soon as a defender put his hands on a ball carrier. I can't remember if this was the case a year ago too; regardless, it's a two-hand touch game right now.
I don't think any of us want to see NFL stars get hurt in a meaningless exhibition. But I don't think we want to see the game played at all if this is what we're going to get. Football this is not. The question now is, can this game be saved? Some thoughts.
Rules changes. The NFL implemented two rules changes for the Pro Bowl, aside from the unofficial/official two-hand touch component. One was an adjustment to the play clock, shortening it from 40 to 35 seconds, which nobody cares about. Officials can be shaky with handling the play clock anyway, as witnessed at the end of the Dallas-San Francisco playoff game, so it's unclear why they felt the need to make this change. But whatever.
The more important rule change, based on a Ravens suggestion a year ago, is that teams after scoring had the option of either a) letting the opposing team start at their 25-yard line, or b) attempting to convert a fourth-and-15 from their own 25-yard line, keeping the ball if they're successful. There weren't going to be any kickoffs in the game anyway; the idea is to potentially replace the onside kick in NFL games with these fourth-and-15 plays.
Yesterday teams started out a combined 0 for 8 on these fourth-and-15 attempts. I got distracted in the fourth quarter and can't locate a full Gamebook for this thing online, so I'm not sure if they finished 0 for 8, 0 for 10, or if they maybe converted one of these things. But we can safely say it will never be tried in an actual NFL game, should the rule be passed at some point, except in situations where a team would normally attempt an onside kick. I'm not sure what the statistics are these days on successful onside kicks (1 in 20? 1 in 15?), but my guess is this would be comparably successful, at best. So not sure what the point is.
Major structural changes. As always, especially after yesterday's debacle, everyone with an Internet connection is posting their own ideas how to fix the game. One of the ones I saw yesterday in multiple places was the idea that the two worst teams in the league should play for the right to draft No. 1 overall. There are several obvious problems with this, so I won't dwell on it too much. One, you can't really ask the entire rosters of the Jaguars and Lions to play an additional full game. Two, if you did force them to play an additional full game, how exactly could you motivate them to try to win? Some of these guys are free agents, they don't care where their former team drafts. The ones who aren't free agents don't necessarily care either, and some might actually prefer their team has a worse pick. If the projected top pick is a quarterback, how do you compel the quarterbacks on the two worst teams to try to help their franchise draft their replacement? (Would Gardner Minshew a year ago have wanted to help his team select Trevor Lawrence?) Nonsensical. So enough of that.
The other idea bandied about is to just ditch the game entirely and have skills competitions. Quarterbacks passing at targets, receivers competing in 40-yard-dashes, etc. They have these things now in addition to the game; they could simply replace the game with it. One problem is that few would actually watch it, just like few watch the skills events now. Another problem is that even fewer would bother to show up at all, which is already a pretty significant issue, as evidenced by the fact that Mac Jones was a Pro Bowl quarterback. Jones had a nice rookie season, but 13th in passing yards and 14th in touchdown passes doesn't scream Pro Bowler. A third is that if you had everyone running 40-yard dashes or fly routes, there actually would be occasional torn hamstrings or whatnot, so some players wouldn't really try, like Tyreek Hill this year.
Injury or the risk of injury is of course the major issue with this game. I was living in Boston back in the 90s when Patriots rookie running back Robert Edwards suffered a major knee injury -- not even in the actual pro bowl, but in a rookie flag football game played on the beach, the last time that particular event occurred.
Maybe it will take a major injury in the pro bowl to finally put this thing to bed, though that's going to be difficult with no tackling or even a lot of running. I tried to remember (and then did an online search) for major injuries in the pro bowl, but nothing came up. I wasn't alive at the time, but I remember reading as a kid about when Major League Baseball's Ted Williams shattered his elbow running into a wall in an All-Star Game in 1950. Williams would later say he was never the same hitter after that.
What's next? The game will probably continue to be played in sites like Las Vegas or Miami. Apparently the most opt-outs in one of these games came the last time it was held in Hawaii -- beautiful place, of course, but more of a commitment I guess to fly there than somewhere in the continental U.S. Presumably Alvin Kamara getting arrested last night for assault (which happened the night before the game) won't be something that keeps the game from being played in Sin City, that could have happened anywhere. But it won't be a selling point in the future, either.
End of the day, I think this game has probably run its course. Once you go to two-hand touch, there's no turning the clock back to tackling. And with that being the case, you're not really playing football. May as well just put flags on player's uniforms like the little kid versions of the game and be done with it.
Was yesterday the final Pro Bowl? For now I'll say I doubt it, but it wouldn't surprise me. The mere fact that searching my memory produces so few actual great memories is evidence enough that few would miss the thing.