Amid reports that the Pro Bowl may go the way of the drop kick (except when executed during a Pro Bowl with 21 other guys standing around and watching), the NFLPA has no interest in pulling the plug on the annual All-Star game.
“The Pro Bowl is an important tradition [and] we are in talks with the league to improve and preserve the game for our players and fans,” NFLPA president Domonique Foxworth said Thursday on Twitter.
The fans don’t really care much about the game. Yes, the fans watch it -- primarily because it’s NFL football and it’s on TV. But the quality of the play has suffered, making the game even less competitive than a preseason game.
One way to fix the game would be to dramatically increase the difference between the paycheck for the winners and the paycheck for the losers. Actually, that may be the only way to convince guys who have made it through a season healthy enough to play one last game to risk suffering a serious injury that they’d then have to spend the offseason rehabbing.
The fact that the NFL and NFLPA are talking about it, and the fact that the NFLPA wants to keep doing it, means that the two sides could come to some sort of an agreement, if the NFLPA is willing to give up something to the NFL in return.
Meanwhile, Jerry Jones and Daniel Snyder brace for another raid on their cap space.