If you watched the Pro Bowl Sunday night you might have noticed it was not bad as previous years, and if you are like me that may have surprised you.

In previous seasons the Pro Bowl has been a joke, there has been an extreme lack of defense and an even larger lack of effort in general.

It basically felt like an irrelevant football game with a random assortment of NFL Players.

The NFL made some changes for the better this season; they threw out the AFC vs. NFC format that the game has used since 1970, when the AFL and NFL merged.

This year the two teams were Team Rice and Team Sanders. Team Rice was captained by all time great wide receiver Jerry Rice, and Hall of Fame defensive back Deion Sanders captained, you guessed it, Team Sanders.

Maybe they should work on more distinguishing names for next year, because this year’s names became an unnecessary challenge for both commentators Chris Collinsworth and Al Michaels, and also left the referees having to say “timeout Jerry Rice’s team,” which sounded really unintelligent.

The 2014 edition brought plenty of new concepts to go along with new team names.

A draft to select the teams was introduced this year. Most of the players that make the Pro Bowl are placed into a pool and then divvied up over a complicated two-day draft process.

This means guys who usually play with each other every other game of the year are now opponents in the Pro Bowl.

Derrick Johnson and Jamaal Charles who both play for the Kansas City Chiefs got to experience this first hand when Johnson crushed Charles on a run play during the first half. Johnson tweeted about it minutes later from the sideline saying he enjoyed the friendly fire.

New rule changes to the game were also seen. The NFL got rid of kick-offs altogether and gave the team the ball on the 25-yard line after each score and end of quarter, yes that says quarter.

Another new rule for the Pro Bowl was to allow the ball to change hands at the end of each quarter like one would see at the start of the second half in any other football game played in the last 20 years.

This made for four, two-minute warnings as opposed to the usual two that happen during the final two minutes of the second and fourth quarters. While it was nice to see the NFL try new things, the changes in rules really just ended up slowing down the game and made it confusing to the casual viewer.

In fact the Pro Bowl has gotten so bad over the years that NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said in 2012 he would consider eliminating the game altogether if the quality of play was not improved. Personally, I think he might be on the right track. I’m sure he would be happy with what he saw Sunday night, but the plays still lacks hustle.

One play comes to mind from Sunday when at the end of the first quarter two 280 pound offensive linemen failed to bring down Chiefs defensive back Eric Berry on an interception return at the end of the first quarter, that was then lateralled around to several other players on the team.

It was reminiscent of the California and Stanford game from 1982, minus the band on the field.

While the Pro Bowl has seen some improvements, it was far from perfect.

Did you see the jerseys? It looked like they were inspired by a multi-color pack of highlighters. Also, the timing isn’t exactly ideal.

Previously, the game was held the week after the Super Bowl, but since 2011 the game has been played the week before.

It seemed like a great idea to me at the time, but with the game being the week before the Super Bowl any player who made the Pro Bowl from either of the conference champions will have to forgo the game to protect themselves against injury and fatigue before the NFL’s championship game.

This means no Wes Welker and his gigantic helmet, no Richard Sherman screaming at you through the television screen, and no Peyton Manning, who I’m sure, spent the game enjoying a Bud Light.

How can you have an all-star game but not have all the stars play in it? That defeats the concept.

They should change the name to “Most-of-the-Pros Bowl.”

Seriously though, no Peyton Manning? That is a disgrace.

If the NFL wants the Pro Bowl to feel worthwhile they should move it back to the week after the Super Bowl so everyone, especially the guy who is having the best passing season in NFL history, can play in it.

The NFL is not the only league struggling with making their all-star event more entertaining.

The Major League Baseball All-Star Game has become more and more comical each year. In its glory days, baseball’s all-star game was fantastic and played very hard like a game full of professional athletes should be.

Pete Rose barreling through Ray Fosse on a play at the plate to win the 1970 midsummer classic comes to mind.

Baseball’s all-star game started to lose its luster in 2002 when MLB Commisioner Bud Selig ended the game in a tie after 11 innings.

The next year Selig tried to make it up to the fans by giving the winning league of the all-star game home field advantage during the World Series to make the game mean something.

Not the best idea since a team could win 110 games during the regular season but be at the disadvantage of playing just three games at home during the World Series. And all because a team maybe three of them played on for one game, lost three months earlier.

The MLB can easily fix their situation by just getting rid of the home field advantage rule, and if they still want to give players an incentive for winning and playing hard they should steal an idea from NASCAR’s All-Star Race, give the winner a million dollars. What motivates better than money?

As for the Pro Bowl I’m glad to see the NFL making steps towards fixing its broken product, but I think there’s one quick and easy way to solve the whole situation.

Don’t play the Pro Bowl.

Just don’t do it, forget it all together, play the Conference Championships games then play the Super Bowl the next week.

The Pro Bowl will never be like the same football we see all season long. It will always be a few steps slower, and the NFL will never be able to duplicate the same kind of exciting product seen throughout the regular season and playoffs.

The Pro Bowl is basically an exhibition game and no amount of rule or format changes will ever change that.

Not to mention the players will always approach it as an exhibition.

So, Roger Goodell save us all some time and just put the Pro Bowl out of its misery, or at least ensure the jerseys are not as hideous next year.

Tony McDaniel can be reached [email protected], @tonymcdanielDE or at 536-3311 ext. 282