Making Super Bowl week more super
It’s Super Bowl week and, this year, I’m not going to use my platform to share my recipe for buffalo wings or discuss air pressure, how exactly it is calculated and what it has to do with Marshawn Lynch not talking to the media.
Instead, let’s talk about the Pro Bowl.
No, wait! Come back!
I don’t want to talk about the Pro Bowl, exactly.
We’re currently in all-star season, with the NFL and NHL all-star games taking place last weekend and the NBA holding its all-star showcase this week in New York.
While each game has taken some heat for its lack of defense and increasing lack of star players, it’s the NFL that has taken the most heat for how its handled the Pro Bowl.
A lot of that can be drawn to the sport’s popularity. More people are interested in the NFL than any of the other leagues so it’s bound to draw more attention.
Even with that, the concern for injuries and the lackadaisical play on the field has caused some to call for the game to be benched.
In order to create more excitement the last few years, the NFL stole a concept from the NHL to draft players from one big pool onto separate teams. While it’s been handled clunkily the last few years, it’s a good start at mixing up the competition, even if the only people still interested are kids and sports bars with nothing else to show on TV.
But, I’m here to help some more.
There’s plenty of options to create an exciting football product in a football-less wasteland during the two-weeks between the conference championship games and the Super Bowl.
The place to start is the skills competition.
While the game itself is relatively meaningless, the skills competition in every sport is the place to settle bar arguments with the best players in the world already on hand.
The NBA has its dunk contest and 3-point shootout. The NHL has its hardest shot competition. The marquee event of the summer is often the MLB’s home run derby.
However, since 2007, the NFL hasn’t held its skills competition, which at one point was the most fun to watch of all.
There was the 40-yard dash. The longest kick. Wide receivers catching bullets out of a machine. An accuracy competition between quarterbacks.
Though it never definitively decided who was the fastest, or the strongest, or the ultimate question of who was the best, it helped translate how freakishly athletic the players you watch every week on TV can be.
Like the NBA showcased the leaping ability of guys like Vince Carter and the MLB the power of guys like Josh Hamilton, watching Washington cornerback Darrell Green race past players 10 years younger than him was a marvel.
It also allowed guys who were typically hidden behind a mask and mountains of armor to relax and show their faces, and personalities, to the world.
Yet, for some reason, the NFL quietly canceled one of its most interesting events.
There’s opportunity everywhere for the NFL, which even through disaster after disaster in public relations over the last year, continues to be the driving topic of American sports.
While I won’t let this transgression ruin my guacamole as I watch commercials this weekend, I can’t help but think there’s even more football we could be watching.