A Twist On The NFL Pro Bowl

About 20 years ago, Guinness had an ad campaign for its draft stout that focused on the time it took to pour a “proper pint”.  As the draft settled in the glass and equilibrated, viewers were told that “Good things come to those who wait.”  I want to suggest this morning that declaration may resonate with football fans who have been waiting for more than 20 years to see the Pro Bowl game dismantled.  Finally, the league and the players dealt with the reality that the Pro Bowl game was a charade and it needed to be shelved.

However, the Pro Bowl does serve some purpose for both the league and the players.  For the league it is a showcase event; it allows for additional sponsorships; it is a “feelgood” time.  For the players – or at least many of them – it is another payday; many players have clauses in their contract for a bonus when/if they are selected for a Pro Bowl game.  Moreover, even players who were not actually selected can cash in here if they replace a selected player who misses the game due to “injury” or due to playing for a team that will be in the Super Bowl next week.

I want to take a short look at three of the selectees this year:

1. Josh Allen was rightfully selected as an AFC Pro Bowl QB.  He declared that he would not show up due to an “injury” – – but that “injury” did not prevent him from showing up and playing in a Pro-Am golf tournament in California this weekend.
2. Derek Carr was selected as an AFC Pro Bowl QB this year.  He was benched for the final two games of the year by the Raiders and the team has said he will not be back with the Raiders next year.
3. Tyler Huntley was selected as an AFC Pro Bowl QB.  He started a total of 4 games this season; he threw 2 TDs and 3 INTs; his QB Rating (on a scale of 0 to 100) was 41.2.

Tyler Huntley is a fine story; he was undrafted coming out of college; he made the Ravens’ team and has started 8 games for the Ravens during his three-year career.  Based on the info I have found at Spotrac.com – a website with plenty of contract specifics for NFL players – Huntley’s contract does not have a Pro Bowl bonus clause possibly because as an undrafted free agent he did not have the leverage to get the team to include one.  And truth be told, based solely on performance on the field in 2022, Tyler Huntley does not belong in the Pro Bowl – – but he is both available and willing to show up and play.

This year, the game itself will be a flag football game.  For the past decade or so, the Pro Bowl games have been almost flag football games but without the flags.  There was very little blocking and virtually no tackling; the players pretended to do those sorts of things, but there was no “gusto”.

“Lack of gusto” is to be expected in a flag football game; so, perhaps seeing that deficiency will not be so dissatisfying.  I will probably tune in for a moment on Sunday at 3:00 PM ET to see if watching elite athletes play flag football is sufficiently entertaining to keep me tuned in for more than a half dozen snaps.

One other Pro Bowl “invitee” demonstrates the lack of seriousness of the game itself.  The league has invited the Commanders’ mascot – – Major Tuddy – – who has been in existence for all of two NFL weekends to show up and “entertain the crowd”.  For those of you who are not familiar with Major Tuddy, he is a creature with a pigface/nose who wears an artillery helmet with the Washington Commanders’ logo on the side.  His “career” consists of two games prancing about on the sidelines and that body of work deems him worthy of Pro Bowl participation.  And I am supposed to take the Pro Bowl seriously…?

Shifting gears …  I ran across a report by the Associated Press with this headline:

“Latvia considers Olympic boycott if Russians compete”

Two thoughts ran through my mind as I read that headline.  First, I wondered if anyone would notice the absence of the Latvian team had they not announced that they would be missing.  Second, we have been down this path before and even when Olympic boycotts are carried out, they do not provide a remedy for the underlying situation that caused some folks to consider a boycott in the first place.

Obviously, the underlying geopolitical issue here is the ongoing situation in Ukraine.  I have no idea what it might take to start the ball rolling toward a resolution of that conflict such that the killing and the destruction comes to an end.  However, I am relatively confident that a Latvian Olympic boycott is not going to get that job done.

Let me remind you of one previous Olympic boycott.  In 1980, the Olympic Games were held in Moscow; in 1979, the Soviet army invaded Afghanistan.  President Carter declared that the US would not send a team to Moscow the next summer and indeed the US boycotted that Olympiad.  So, did the Soviet army leave Afghanistan and stop the shooting/killing?

• Well, if you believe that the Soviet withdrawal in 1989 was somehow directly linked to that boycott in the summer of 1980, then you might believe such a threat in 2023 has the gravitas to settle things in Ukraine.

Pardon me, but I cannot get on that bandwagon…

Finally, since today dealt with two situations that have a farcical element in them, let me close with a theater adage:

“A comedy puts unusual people in real situations; a farce puts real people in unusual situations.”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………