January 28, 2003
Pro Bowl Blues
This Sunday afternoon, the most inconsequential football game of the year will take place in Hawaii, and I'm guessing few fans will even notice that the Pro Bowl is going on. Heck, even John Madden, due to his fear of flying, won't be travelling to Hawaii to broadcast the game. Over at National Review Online, Steve Chapman says it's time to put the Pro Bowl out to pasture:
It may be unfair to say nothing exciting has ever happened in a Pro Bowl. In fact, there may have been thrilling plays that nobody remembers because nobody saw them. Last year, the NFL had to go to great lengths just to sell all 50,000 seats in the stadium — and this in Honolulu, where locals normally have to travel 2,000 miles to see pro-football players collide. TV ratings have fallen by 65 percent since 1995. Other all-star games have also lost viewers, but none has fallen so fast or so far as the Pro Bowl. The 2002 game got a 4.3 Nielsen rating, meaning fewer than 5 million people tuned in. The baseball All-Star game that ended in a tie in Milwaukee's Miller Park got a 9.5 rating — and that was its worst showing ever. The NBA affair got an 8.2. If that's not embarrassing enough for the NFL, the Pro Bowl had fewer viewers than the Home Run Derby, which is held the day before the All-Star game.
Now, far be it for me to dispute Steven on the facts. Sure, the Pro Bowl is the biggest dud going. If it were to disappear, few fans would notice or care. But that's not why the Pro Bowl exists. For clues as to why, read this passage from NFL.com describing the Pro Bowl's pre-game tailgate party:
You can enjoy tailgating at its best on Pro Bow Sunday at the NFL's Official pregame celebration. The event offers guests an up-close and personal chance to sample the NFL in the company of celebrities, NFL business partners (emphasis mine, EMc) and local dignitaries.
And that's why we have a Pro Bowl. Not for the fans, but for the advertisers and other partners that support the league. In effect, the NFL uses the Pro Bowl the same way it uses the Super Bowl: as an opportunity to wine and dine its best clients. There's also a charity golf tournament associated with the game, one that's chock full of current and former players, including a few Hall of Famers. While tickets for the tournament are for sale to the public for $1,000 each, you can bet that the foursomes with ex-greats like Lawrence Taylor, Eric Dickerson and Paul Warfield are going to the league's best friends.
The only party you might want to feel sorry for is ABC Sports, the outfit stuck broadcasting this turkey. But then again, it's just the freight they have to pay as part of the Monday Night Football package, and they've factored in the loss in ad revenue from airing it by making advertisers pay a premium to get time on Monday night during the season.
The only way the Pro Bowl will go away, is if the friends of the league tire of having to travel to Hawaii in the first week of February.
I guess we're stuck with the Pro Bowl for the duration.
POSTSCRIPT: Though the Pro Bowl has been held annually in Honolulu since 1980, from 1971-1979, the site of the game was rotated between NFL cities. In 1974, better than 64,000 people showed up for the Pro Bowl in Kansas City. That's outdoors. In January. In Missouri.
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05:35 PM