00:00What was the latest rendition the NFL had come up with last year for a Pro Bowl?
00:06Whatever it was, it was awful, and nobody remembers it.
00:09So the fact that they did away with it, Tom, I don't know what took them so long.
00:13I really don't.
00:14Right?
00:14Makes total sense.
00:15Yeah.
00:16I don't either.
00:17To me, this seems like a non—like, to me personally, it's a non-issue.
00:22Like, they got rid of it.
00:23I didn't watch the Pro Bowl to begin with, so you're taking away something that, like,
00:27doesn't, you know, affect me materially.
00:30The report is that it will still remain an individual performance award,
00:34which is important for players' personal achievement.
00:38It doesn't matter for contract.
00:40You know, they get bonuses.
00:42And this is—you know, my mind immediately goes to week 18, week 17,
00:47when a lot of people are betting into players based on player props because of performances.
00:51Like, a player needs to have 1,000 yards receiving, and he gets a bonus of half a million dollars
00:56or whatever it is.
00:57It's like, oh, if a player makes the Pro Bowl, he also gets some type of contract incentive.
01:02So now I'm thinking, are there going to be players that are going to be pushing for
01:05simply yardage or touchdown milestones just because that can get them to a Pro Bowl nod,
01:11a nomination, whatever you want to call it, and therefore they get some contract?
01:14That means I want to be paying attention to that from a betting perspective for touchdowns
01:18or yardage.
01:19That's where my mind goes.
01:20Them getting rid of the actual event, I couldn't care less about.
01:24Yeah, well, they've had some sort of all-star game in the NFL since 1951, right?
01:30So this will be the first year that they don't have some—something, right, where you actually
01:35see it.
01:35The whole thing about this cracks me up because it used to be when it was in Hawaii, Tom,
01:41it was a—that was kind of a perk for that generation, the 60s, 70s.
01:48Like, they got a weekend in Hawaii for making the Pro Bowl, and those guys that had no problem
01:53going out there.
01:54There weren't eight people in the stands because nobody is—no common fan can afford to hop
02:01on a plane for a weekend and go to Hawaii.
02:04So it really wasn't about the fans, but it was a hell of a way for guys and incentive
02:10for them to go on a nice trip at the end of the year and hang out in Hawaii.
02:14Then they moved it to Orlando so the fans could get closer to them.
02:19And that's when everything went hard left there.
02:22Like, the guys were like, yeah, no.
02:24I got—I wanted to go to Hawaii.
02:26Now I'm going to Orlando.
02:27So they effectively, over the last decade, destroyed everything that was supposed to
02:33be good about the all-star game for the NFL.
02:36Now, name your team, fly them out, have a big steak dinner, and be done with it, Tom,
02:42right?
02:42I mean, the game was never bet on it.
02:44Could you even bet on the game, I don't think, the last couple of years?
02:47I don't think you could.
02:49I don't think so.
02:51I think once they changed it to the flag football format, that is when it left.
02:57I remember, again, it's an all-star game.
03:00I think in any sport, we know what our expectations are for any type of all-star game.
03:05But isn't it supposed to be about the fans?
03:07Isn't that what all-star games are?
03:09Yeah, it should be about the fans, the skill competitions that they have.
03:13You know, obviously, we're very contrived.
03:16If they're just, they're there for sponsorships and whatnot.
03:20But they've got to figure it out.
03:21Because if they're going to just completely get rid of it, they have to do something to
03:25fill.
03:26They're going to, not they have to do something.
03:27They will do something to fill that time in the bye week before the Super Bowl.
03:34The NFL will do something.
03:36That's a guarantee.
03:37Yeah.
03:38Yeah.
03:38Because otherwise, the whole point of all of this was supposed to be about the fans.
03:42But the minute you sent it to Hawaii, fans are like, how am I supposed to fly for, I'm
03:47going to go see Lawrence Taylor in Hawaii?
03:49Like, that's not how it works.
03:51So, it really never was about the fans with the NFL, despite everything they kept trying
03:57to sell you over the years.
03:59But for the first time since 1951, there will not be an all-star game for the NFL.
04:07Plenty, though, of all-star games in Major League Baseball, including one of this year's.
04:13Who won this year's all-star game in Major League Baseball time?
04:17Uh, it was the, it was the AL.
04:20Yeah, exactly.
04:21Yeah.
04:22What was that score?
04:23Did you remember that?
04:24It was, mm.
04:24Super low scoring.
04:26Yeah.
04:27Yeah, you go.
04:27See?
04:28No, but stop playing them.
04:30Nobody cares about them.
04:31Absolutely no.
04:32All I remember is, I think I had to cover it.
04:34I was on air with Mish here on the Sports Grid Network.
04:37And it was like watching paint dry.
04:39It was, they had home runs or runs in the first.
04:42The Yankee, two Yankee players, I think.
04:44And Bellinger and, you know, a couple of singles in the first.
04:50And that was it.
04:52That was your entire game.
04:54Like, if the players don't buy into it, there is no reason to have it, as far as I'm concerned
05:00here across the board.
05:01This is why I'll say the NHL has the best all-star weekend.
05:05They're either doing the crazy skill competitions of the hardest shot, the fastest skater, all that stuff.
05:10Or they're doing the Four Nations, which everyone loves.
05:12So, figure it out.
