What's wrong with the Pro Bowl?

Something needed to be done to try and generate more interest in the Pro Bowl. But moving the game up to the bye week between the conference championships and the Super Bowl doesn’t solve any of the NFL all-star game's problems. It’s still, and sadly always will be, an unentertaining affair.

The big deal is not that the Super Bowl teams’ players won’t play in the Pro Bowl. That’s always been an issue. Sure, the likes of Peyton Manning and Drew Brees couldn’t hurt the game, but their absence won't kill it.

The fact is, aside from first-timers, not many players seem excited about the Pro Bowl. Everyone wants to be picked for the game, which is an honor, but no one wants to play because it’s a chore.

A football all-star game just plain doesn’t work, no matter when it’s played.

In baseball, basketball and even hockey, every player gets a chance to be seen, giving fans the opportunity to cheer for him. Baseball players hit or pitch (except for the poor saps who play one inning as a defensive replacement). In the NBA, every all-star plays and is usually afforded the opportunity to do something cool for the fans. Same goes for hockey, albeit to a much less interesting extent.

But how do football fans appreciate their offensive linemen? No one’s watching the Pro Bowl and marveling at Logan Mankins’ pass blocking, because if he’s doing a good enough job, Matt Schaub or whomever is playing quarterback is probably making something much more exciting happen down the field.

And even the exciting plays aren’t that exciting in the Pro Bowl.

So what’s the answer? How do we fix the Pro Bowl?

Honestly, this is going to sound goofy, but turn it into a flag football game. It doesn’t solve all the problems, but it would make for a more fun atmosphere, like the NBA All-Star game. There would be no hitting, meaning almost no chance of injury, and it would give players the opportunity to do some entertaining stuff — trick plays, behind-the-back passes, center and quarterback switch spots for a play, whatever.

Sure, it’s gimmicky, but aren’t all all-star games on some level? Flag football isn’t the perfect solution, but it would be an upgrade from what the game is now.

It's the most annoying time of the year

Media Week is by far the most annoying time of the NFL season, and year after year, it's getting worse. Hordes of reporters - if you'd even call them that - land at the site of the Super Bowl and ask the absolute dumbest questions you could imagine.

"What toilet paper do you use?"
"If you were a bird, what kind of bird would you be?"
"Do you prefer Coke of Pepsi?"
"How often do you clip your toenails?"

Some of the moments can be entertaining, but most of them are just trying to get on SportsCenter to claim their 15 minutes of fame. And speaking of the self-proclaimed worldwide leader, they lead the charge in annoyingness ... Look I love football, but they just won't stop, and most of the time, they're just trying to get someone to say something that can be over examined.

For example, Saints defensive coordinator Gregg Williams said he wants this defense to give Colts quarterback a few "remember-me hits." So ESPN jumps on that and claims the Saints will be "headhunting" on Super Sunday. Really? From what I understand, football is being played, not chess.

If they Saints are to win, they're going to need to knock Manning down as much as possible. But I digress.

The point is, wake me up when the game starts.

Stay in the stands

There's no doubt that Providence College's 81-66 upset win over Connecticut on Wednesday night was huge. But an upset worthy of storming the court? Not even close.

These days, however, it seems that students feel the need to run onto the floor after any mild upset. When PC beat then-No. 1 Pittsburgh last year and the kids stormed the court, it made about as much sense as this silly practice can.
But UConn now is below .500 in the Big East. The Huskies were ranked 19th after falling out of the Top 25 last week. True, they were coming off a huge upset of their own after beating top-ranked Texas on Saturday. But David vs. Goliath this was not.

Most of the 11,136 in attendance at the Dunkin' Donuts Center didn't think PC had a prayer in this game. That, however, doesn't mean storming the court is appropriate. It's usually ridiculous and, at the risk of sounding like an old killjoy, potentially dangerous. If I were one of the UConn players on the court when hordes of PC students ran out, I'd be a little on edge. If you've ever been to a PC game and listened to some of the garbage spewing from mouths of the students, you'd understand. And I wouldn't put it past some moron to taunt or take a cheap shot at an opposing player on his way by, and that creates the potential for things to get ugly.

Look, I'm all for kids celebrating with their basketball-playing classmates after a big victory. But do it back on campus. College kids still have parties, right? Go to one and celebrate there. Granted, that won't be on SportsCenter, but storming the court is, most of the time, an idiotic tradition.

Blame the Friars, not Keno

If you haven't seen, or at least heard about, the complete and utter collapse the Providence College men's basketball team suffered against visiting South Florida last Saturday, take a look. But I warn you, it's painful to watch.

The Friars led by 12 with less than two minutes remaining, nine with 45 seconds to go and five with 10 ticks left. And they still managed a way to blow that lead and lose in overtime. Give the Bulls credit, they knocked down the shots and put the pressure on the Friars, but the PC players are to blame. Missed free throws, turnovers and shots when the shot clock isn't even at single digits were a big contributing factor to this loss.

After the game, second-year Friars coach Keno Davis was unforgiving when speaking about his team, which fell to 3-4 in the Big East and faces its toughest stretch of the season.

"The team that we have right now is not good enough," he said in his postgame press conference. "It’s not good enough to fight through some miscues offensively or missed free throws or missed defensive assignments. We’re not as talented as we need to be in this league."

He's 100 percent correct. Providence has never been known as a tough team, but this squad takes that to a new level. USF came into the game averaging about 65 points against Big East competition this season, and they left the Dunkin' Donuts Center after scoring 109.

Some in the blogosphere were critical of Davis, saying he threw his team under the bus and that he should go. Are you nuts? Keno Davis is the best Providence College is going to do, and he hasn't had time to bring in too many recruits. He's still using Tim Welsh's softies.

Likely being pressured to do so, Davis is backing off his comments, telling the Providence Journal, "If anybody thought I was throwing our team under the bus, they're wrong. I take responsibility for happened at the end of the game."

Really? I don't see how Davis can take responsibility when he can't shoot the free throws and he can't run the offense. Sure, he could have called a timeout to calm down the players, but the bottom line is that a team with a senior point guard and two good scorers should be able to protect a nine-point lead with a minute to go.

Not only that, but a good public tongue lashing will be good for these kids. Our society tends to coddle today's athletes (everybody gets a medal!) and that's not right. They're all on scholarship and need to perform. I'm sure there's plenty of players waiting in the wings for that free ride through school.

The Friars host UConn - which beat then top-ranked Texas last weekend Saturday - tonight and if they don't get a little tougher, it's going to be long, long season.

Bowl-ing for controversy

I've made it no secret that I'm a fan of the Florida Gators, and obviously the face of the school's football program is Tim Tebow. Sure, he's a stud quarterback and I loved watching him play, but I don't always agree with what he says or does. He's very much a person with strong beliefs, one who is quick to thank God after every win (or loss) and wears scriptures on his eye black. And that's fine with me.

A Christian organization, Focus on the Family, will use Tebow and his mother as spokespeople for an ad that is anti-abortion and is scheduled to run during the Super Bowl. CBS, which is broadcasting the game, has reviewed and approved the script, which tells the story about how Pam Tebow was urged to abort her fifth child, Tim, who went on to lead the Gators to two national championships and win the Heisman Trophy.

Abortion is clearly a hot-button topic, and women's rights groups - the National Organization for Women, the Feminist Majority and others - have urged CBS to pull the ad.

"An ad that uses sports to divide rather than to unite has no place in the biggest national sports event of the year — an event designed to bring Americans together," Jehmu Greene, president of the New York-based Women's Media Center, told reporters.

Can we all just agree that last part is incorrect, seeing as though it pits two teams - and two fan bases - against each other? Anyway, Tebow addressed the controversy after Monday's Senior Bowl practice.

"I know some people won't agree with it, but I think they can at least respect that I stand up for what I believe," Tebow said to reporters. "I've always been very convicted of it (his views on abortion) because that's the reason I'm here, because my mom was a very courageous woman. So any way that I could help, I would do it."

As with most major issues in this country, I'm on the fence - the place that provides the best seat to watch both sides make fools of themselves. Besides, this isn't about me or my opinions. I just think that if someone wants to pay the $2.5 million it costs to run a 30-second ad, let them do it. Nobody is stopping the women's rights groups from doing the same.

Additionally, if your take on abortion does a complete 180 because Tim Tebow tells you it's inhumane, or against Christian beliefs, than you have far greater issues. And if you don't like what you're seeing, change the channel ... it'll only be 30 seconds.

Vintage Favre

EDIT: Because this seems to be a Favre-bashing kind of a day, I threw in this little gem, which made me laugh. -SB

The last pass Brett Favre threw as the quarterback of the Green Bay Packers was poorly thrown, intercepted and cost the Packers the NFC championship in the 2007 season. How poetic that, perhaps, Favre's last pass in the NFL is, again, a poorly thrown ball that was intercepted and cost his team the NFC championship.

As a Packers fan and Favre hater, I've pretty much trashed the guy all season, despite the fact that he's had one of the best years of his career. Words cannot describe my joy when he threw that last interception.
But one last time, I'm giving him some props for the way he played in the NFC championship game on Sunday in New Orleans.

Early on, it was clear that one of the Saints' defensive goals was to knock Favre around, and they succeeded. Favre got hit, and hit, and hit, and hit hard. One hit in particular, in the second half, sent him limping to the sideline after his first interception of the game. But he got his ankle taped and, on Minnesota's next possession, limped back on the field and kept playing.
I don't know if Favre is the toughest quarterback in NFL history, but he's unquestionably the toughest I've seen. A lot of QBs probably wouldn't have come back to the game in Favre's condition, and he's a man, he's 40.

And, as much as it pains me to admit it, I was wrong about Brett this season. I thought he'd burn out, like he did with the Jets last year. I thought he'd show his age. I thought the Vikings would be only slightly better with him under center.
But they were a whole lot better. Favre had the fewest interceptions of any season in his career in which he was a full-time starter. His 33 touchdowns were his most since 1997, when he led the Packers to a second straight Super Bowl.

Clearly he can still play this game at an elite level. I just wish that, the last several years, he's make up his damn mind more quickly that he wants to continue to play. Then again, if he had, he might still be the Packers quarterback. And I know Green Bay lost in the first round, but Aaron Rodgers has shown in his first two seasons leading team that he's nasty. But that's material for another blog entry ... next year perhaps ... when Rodgers takes the Packers to the Super Bowl. (Disclaimer: That's not an official prediction, yet. More of a musing.)

Favre's last play of the season is one of the key reasons most Packers fans don't miss him. In the coming weeks, and months, Vikings fans will learn another reason as Favre, yet again, ponders retirement. Don't expect a quick decision from the guy who's thrown more playoff interceptions than anyone in NFL history. He's going to hold the Vikings hostage, especially since he knows the Vikings don't have the guts, as the Packers did, to tell him his services are no longer wanted.

We all were witnesses this season to vintage Brett Favre. The unbelievable touchdown passes. The "what the hell was he thinking?" interceptions. The passion for the game. And now, the waiting to find out if he'll retire.

Good luck with that, Minnesota.