This year’s NFL playoffs have been rather underwhelming. Just two of the 10 games have been decided by one possession. The other eight games — including the conference championship games — were blowouts. However, most NFL fans would gladly watch another week of uncompetitive games than the NFL Pro Bowl — the league’s all-star game.
A game featuring the NFL’s best athletes sounds like a must-watch, but this is far from the truth. After multiple attempts at increasing attendance and television viewership, it’s time to eliminate the Pro Bowl.
Canceling an all-star game may seem drastic, but the NFL knows this game has been failing for years. In 2016, 8 million viewers watched the Pro Bowl on ESPN. Ratings have declined every year since 2011, when the game hit 13.4 million viewers. Last year’s game was the lowest-rated Pro Bowl since 2006.
Eight million viewers may sound like a big accomplishment, but this isn’t the case for professional football, which is the most-watched sport in the United States. So far this postseason, the lowest-rated game — between Houston and Oakland — earned 25.1 million views. As boring as that game was — and it was extremely boring — it still pulled in 17.1 million more viewers than last season’s Pro Bowl, and will undoubtedly have better numbers than this year’s Pro Bowl.
On the other hand, the reason the Pro Bowl is still around is due partly to its ratings compared to other sports’ all-star games. The 2016 NBA and NHL all-star games drew in 7.6 million and 1.6 million viewers, respectively — both lower totals than the Pro Bowl.
As easy as it is to compare the Pro Bowl to other all-star games and think it’s doing well enough to be kept around, a ratings juggernaut like the NFL shouldn’t be comparing its ratings to other sports. In 2016, the NFL had 33 of the 50 most-watched sporting events. The Olympics were a distant second with 12 events, while the MLB, NBA and NHL combined for just four.
Instead, the Pro Bowl should be compared to other NFL game ratings. In 2016, just five of 267 games had lower viewerships than the Pro Bowl. The Pro Bowl is meant to be a game of the best players in the league, yet it can barely draw more viewership than the NFL’s worst regular-season games.
The main reason viewership is plummeting is because of the quality of players competing in the game. In 2010, the NFL moved the Pro Bowl to the week before the Super Bowl in hopes of increasing ratings. However, this prevents players who are in the Super Bowl — often the best players on the best teams — from taking part.
A record 133 players were selected to play in the Pro Bowl in 2016. That number may seem significant, but the Pro Bowl is only supposed to have 86 total players. Many players decline their Pro Bowl invitation because of injury.
This not only devalues the selection to the Pro Bowl, but creates rosters with second and third-option players. The Pro Bowl isn’t worth watching if it’s not the best against the best, so obviously this contributes to the lack of viewers.
There’s no reason to have another dangerous NFL game. A Boston University study concluded that 90 of 94 deceased NFL players’ brain tissue tested positive for chronic traumatic encephalopathy. Avoiding another game — even if it’s as uncompetitive as the Pro Bowl — is vital to the health of these players.
With the lower number of stars leading to dismal viewership, the game should be canceled. If viewership isn’t enough for the league to cancel it, then player safety should be.