It's Time To Either Change The Pro Bowl Voting Or Do Away With The Game

In what has quickly become the biggest popularity contest in sports with no real meaning, the Pro Bowl could at least finish voting at the end of the regular season. Instead of the voting polls closing early for those who are Hawaii bound why not end the voting after week 17.There are still a handful of decisive game changing performances left in the last few weeks of the NFL season.

Notably in Week 16, Panthers running back DeAngelo Williams rushed for 108 yards and four touchdowns in a overtime loss to the Giants in the bitter cold of New York. Arguably, this year’s most underrated player, Williams leads the NFL with 20 total touchdowns, 18 of them on the ground with yet another week to play.

Now I know that if you look up the word appalling in the dictionary, you will see the Detroit Lions, but that’s no excuse to leave receiver Calvin Johnson out of the Pro Bowl. Johnson, despite playing musical chairs with the quarterback rotation is averaging nearly 18 yards a catch and has scored 10 touchdowns thus far.

If you want to talk quarterbacks then by the stats Philip Rivers should be a shoe in over Broadway Brett Favre.

However, this article is not so much about who was snubbed or I could compile a long list, but rather the process of voting is the problem. If the voting was moved farther back it would create a new opportunity for those players on the boarder line one last opportunity along with every other player.

The pro bowl should either be done right or done away with. Another thing that strikes me funny is the players who are voted into the Pro Bowl and decline to play. Yes, you risk injury, but you risk the same injury playing any amount of snaps in the preseason. Don’t play in the Pro Bowl for yourself, but rather NFL fans, especially those who take the time and money to attend the game itself.

Regardless of the so called prestige that comes with going to the Pro Bowl the NFL would be better doing away with it. Perhaps something like being named an All-American or All-Pro would be better justified.