Professional football is often a game of deception. Coaches lie, players lie, management lies, the media covering the team lies, and the fans often lie to themselves. Much of it is either wishful thinking or gamesmanship, since it doesn't help a team to reveal useful information to an opponent. But as fantasy players, it can be tough to figure out what type of "questionable" a player really is, or how "limited" a limited practice was, or how much "better" a player is really feeling.
For example, when Josh Allen hurt his non-throwing hand in week 1, he said he was fine. Now there are reports it was actually broken. Players play hurt, and their true status sometimes isn't revealed until Sunday morning. I understand the rationale, but it makes our jobs harder.
But while we wait for the Super Bowl, there's one week where the NFL is very up front about what's going on. The Pro Bowl has changed a lot over the years, but at least it's now honest about what you're getting.
Remember when the players pretended to play an actual game? It wasn't real football, and it was actually worse than no football because players simply wanted to go through the motions and not get hurt. Can you remember the score from any Pro Bowl in history? The players probably can't, either. As much as I dislike the preseason, at least many of those guys are fighting for jobs and really trying. The Pro Bowl was just kind of there. It was a paid athlete vacation that someone decided to televise, and for the fans it was a waste of time. I trashed it for years in this column, and I don't regret a word of it.
Now there is no actual Pro Bowl, and the league has even admitted the change by renaming it the "Pro Bowl Games." And that's what they are. Just games. Skills competitions, a tug-of-war competition, and some weird thing where they measure how hard you spike the ball. And after all the games, they have a flag football game coached by the Manning brothers. That's about it. A numbers of players bailed on it, so others got to play. So you got a few games, some laughs, and a flag football game.
And I kind of like it, because you know what you don't get? Lies. Nobody is pretending they're really playing football. Nobody is pretending a player wanted to be there but couldn't make it. They just didn't want to come. Nobody is pretending the event is serious or important. I got really annoyed in years past when the Pro Bowl announcers tried to imply that the game mattered, or that we were watching some real competition on the field. It's just one reason why I didn't watch.
But now, it's a nice breather before the last meaningful game of the year. You can watch it or not. You can watch highlights or the whole thing. And as a bonus, the flag football game is a good introduction to watching athletes at the highest level play it: The 2028 Olympics will feature flag football as an official sport. Mike Evans has even talked about playing for the men's team in a few years. Some of these guys might be representing their country and playing for gold when the games come to Los Angeles. That makes it a little more interesting.
So did I watch it? Not really. But I saw highlights. The flag football game looked fun. The players were having a great time, the celebrations were absurd and there were frequent dives into a foam pit. Everyone was enjoying it, including the fans. And that's more than I could say for Pro Bowls in the past. I didn't watch, didn't care, and didn't even want it to exist. The whole thing felt phony. Now I think it's an honest presentation of silly games and light competition, and nobody is pretending it's anything else. If I wasn't busy with other stuff, I might have tuned in. But I did spend some time watching clips and segments afterward, and it seemed like a cool event.
And really, that's exactly what the games should be: Something to watch in the off week that's entertaining but isn't too serious. The real competition is just a few days away now. Let's enjoy it.
Did you watch the Pro Bowl Games? Do you like it more or less than the old one? Anything stand out for you? Share your thoughts below.