The NFL has announced that the 2010 Pro Bowl will be played at Miami’s Dolphin Stadium on January 31, 2010 — a week before the Super Bowl is held there. It’s been played in Honolulu since 1980 and has always been held after the Super Bowl. The league says that the Pro Bowl will likely return to Honolulu in the future, perhaps as part of a rotation with other sites.
The league is trying to make the game more interesting, but it's hard to imagine how this will work. Pro Bowlers from the two Super Bowl teams will surely skip the game rather than risk an injury before perhaps the biggest game of their lives.
The NFL has announced that the 2010 Pro Bowl will be played at Miami’s Dolphin Stadium on January 31, 2010 — a week before the Super Bowl is held there. It’s been played in Honolulu since 1980 and has always been held after the Super Bowl. The league says that the Pro Bowl will likely return to Honolulu in the future, perhaps as part of a rotation with other sites.
The league is trying to make the game more interesting, but it’s hard to imagine how this will work. Pro Bowlers from the two Super Bowl teams will surely skip the game rather than risk an injury before perhaps the biggest game of their lives.
As for other players, is this move going to entice them to not bow out, as many do now, because of minor injuries and other reasons? I doubt it will make much difference. I also imagine they'll have to put in extra time and money to make sure the field is in prime condition for the Super Bowl. The field could get torn up by the Pro Bowl, especially if there's bad weather.
All-Star games in all sports are exhibitions and nothing more. Any relevance they may have had in the past has been eradicated by many factors (interleague play in baseball, the wide availability of many games on television, gimmicks such as skills competitions). The NFL is wasting its time here.
