Game Info
Team Rice vs Team Sanders
Sunday – January 26 – 6:30 PM
TV: NBC
Aloha Stadium – Honolulu
The Pro Bowl will be played a bit differently this year, almost bringing the fun and entertainment back into the sporting event, hopefully drawing in more the 12.2 million views. This year, two captains will get a chance to draft players from both the NFC and AFC conferences in the same draft pool. That’s right, no more NFC vs AFC, but old school, backyard, pick-up style football, but with most of the normal rules of the NFL to ensure safety.
The captains of each team will make this year’s Pro Bowl something else, one reason why? It’s the rivalry between Deion Sanders (Defensive Back/Dallas Cowboys) and Jerry Rice (Wide Receiver/San Francisco 49ers) in the 90’s and now they get to hand pick the today’s Pro Bowl players. These two Hall of Famers and each holding many records in their respective positions, get to combine the likes of Peyton Manning with the electric Calvin Johnson Jr. aka Megatron or putting Terrell Suggs and Ahmad Brooks on the same field, and they get to be the very first two ever to do this in the history of the NFL. It honestly can’t get anymore exciting than that.
The Pro Bowl hasn’t been like it used to be in some years, falling in ratings due to lack of excitement, players being accused of not trying to play, and fans are just finding it boring. Too much offense and not enough defense, that’s one of the major complaints. If you look at the NFL today, it’s all about offense now. Even during the Super Bowl last season, neither team’s defense showed up in one half or the other. Less and less teams are running the football, so the front sevens don’t have to be as bulky anymore. They still have to have size and be fast, to be able to keep up with the Tight Ends or Running Backs on offense. They have to hit just as hard, but combining speed and size can be difficult in sports.
I may be wrong, but what I do know is that we won’t know unless we tune to the NFL Network on January 22nd at 7:00 pm for the first ever Pro Bowl Draft and on Sunday January 26th at 6:30 pm on NBC.
