Send the Pro Bowl to sleep with the fishes

I despise the Pro Bowl.

This is not a new feeling, it's not something I've recently started to feel. I've never liked the Pro Bowl and I've never understood why it was even held.

For anyone reading this who may not be an expert on the Pro Bowl, I'll give you a basic summary of how it goes down. The NFL opens up the voting to fans, who may vote for a set amount of players at each position, from any team to "make" the Pro Bowl. Fans may vote as many times as they'd like for whomever they would like, and the players with the most votes (i.e the most popular players) get selected to the Pro Bowl.

Occasionally a player is picked as a form of recognition for having a career year, which would seem to be a service to the Pro Bowl. Typically, however, deserving players get snubbed in favor of popular players having a weaker season simply because of their popularity.

Due to the hype that typically surrounds teams that are leading the NFL in wins, the amount of players sent by each team is often skewed in favor of the teams with the best record. For example, the Kansas City Chiefs and San Fransisco 49ers both had eight players selected for the Pro Bowl, and both teams happen to be top tier teams in the NFL this season. Sadly, so that there was room for these two teams to send eight players, five NFL teams will have zero representation in a game that is meant to showcase individuals who perform well.

That's not the fault of the NFL, to be honest. Fan voting brought it upon us, fan voting decided that nobody from Jacksonville, New York (twice), Green Bay or Atlanta deserved individual recognition this season. Meanwhile everyone and their mother from San Fransisco and Kansas City "deserved" recognition, apparently.

Enough with the boring details of the fan voting/player selection process, let's get to the super exciting part of the Pro Bowl; the game.

Wait....why is everyone standing around? Aren't they playing a game? It looks more like a practice....are they even trying? and what the HELL are they wearing?!?

If you thought that by gathering all of these skilled professionals and asking them to play a meaningless game at full speed and risk injuring themselves during the postseason would work, then I applaud you, for you live in a fantasyland. The plain truth of the matter is, this game means nothing in the grand scope of the season. Winning the Pro Bowl is such a minor prize compared to winning the Super Bowl, so obviously players that are preparing for the Super Bowl won't risk injuring themselves, and rightfully so.

All you will see in a Pro Bowl game is about 5 passes thrown by each quarterback over a line that basically stands up once the ball is snapped and starts fraternizing with the D line before the play is even over. Defensively, players rack up more "attempted tackles" than tackles, as the game inevitably ends up in some ridiculous shootout to the tune of some 50-45 final score.

I'm tired of the Pro Bowl. I'd much prefer a coach voted "Pro Bowl" award similar to the All-American teams awarded in college football, and spare us the pain and unnecessary torture of having to watch, hear about or even thinking about a worthless Pro Bowl game. It's poorly timed, poorly organized and the play does not live up to the standard of football befitting the National Football League.