The National Football League All-Star Game (also known as the Pro Bowl) is no longer according to ESPN on Wednesday. The best 88 players in the NFL will be still recognized as Pro Bowlers but no game will be played.
The Pro Bowl has taken place every year since 1951. The first 22 Pro Bowls took place at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in southern California. It was initially the best players from the American Football Conference against the best players from the National Football Conference.
The majority of Pro Bowls I watched growing up took place at Aloha Stadium in Honolulu, Hawaii. One year as a child I remember reading the local newspaper, and the box score of the Pro Bowl was not published. I called the sports department and the person who took my call said, “no one watches the Pro Bowl.”
Overtime, I figured out why. The game lacked tackling and intensity. Players simply had no desire to win. The Pro Bowl became the least interesting All-Star Game of all four North American sports.
The most interesting Pro Bowl came in 2003. It was not for anything that happened on the field, but for a memorable interview that happened on the sideline. Hall of Famer Peyton Manning, who at the time was with the Indianapolis Colts, was previously criticized by Colts kicker Mike Vanderjagt on the Canadian network The Score for “lacking emotional urgency” in a 41-0 Indianapolis playoff loss to the New York Jets. Manning was asked to address those comments in an interview during the game, and is remembered for addressing Vanderjagt as simply “The Idiot Kicker.”
