NFL: How The 2014 Pro Bowl Will Be Better Than Usual

Deion Sanders and Jerry Rice will try
to make the 2014 Pro Bowl a must see.
Photo credit NFL 

by Nathaniel Herrick

The Pro Bowl will be played a bit different this year, almost bringing the fun and entertainment back into the sporting event, hopefully drawing in more the 12.2 million views. This year, two captain’s will get a chance to draft players from both the NFC and AFC conferences in the same draft pool. That’s right, no more NFC vs AFC, but old school, backyard, pick-up style football, but with all the normal rules of the NFL to ensure safety. 


 The captains of each team will make this years Pro Bowl something else, one reason why? It’s the rivalry between Deion Sanders (Defensive Back/Dallas Cowboys) and Jerry Rice (Wide Receiver/San Francisco 49er’s) in 90’s, and now they get to hand pick the today’s All-Stars. These two Hall of Famers and each holding so many records in their respective positions, get to combine the likes of Peyton Manning with the electric Calvin Johnson Jr. aka Megatron or putting Terrell Suggs and Ahmad Brooks on the same field, and they get to be the very first two ever to do this in the history of the NFL, it honestly can’t get anymore exciting than that.

 The Pro Bowl hasn’t been like it used to in some years, falling in ratings do to lack of excitement, players being accused of not trying to play, and fans are just finding it boring. Too much offense and not enough defense, that’s one of the major complaints, but if you look at the NFL today, it’s all about offense now, even during the Super Bowl last season, both teams defense didn’t show up in one half or the other. Less and less teams are running the football, so the front sevens don’t have to be as big anymore, they have to big and fast, to be able to keep up with the Tight Ends or Running Backs on the offense, and they have to hit just as hard, but combining speed and size can be difficult in sports. 

 I may be wrong, but what I do know is that we won’t know unless we tune to the NFL Network on January 22nd, 2014 at 8:00 pm ET for the first ever Pro Bowl Draft, and on Sunday January 26th, 2014 at 7:00 PM ET on NBC.