AFC-NFC Pro Bowl Practices Begin

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The AFC and NFC teams had their first practices today for Sunday’s annual Pro Bowl. This is the 30th straight time the game will be played in Honolulu, but the Pro Bowl will not return to Hawaii in 2010. Next year the game moves to the weekend before the Super Bowl in Miami. Here’s what NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell had to say about it at his Super Bowl XLIII presser last week:

“The entire premise of shifting the Pro Bowl was to make our event bigger and better than it is right now. We’ve had a great experience in Hawaii. We expect to continue to be in Hawaii. We expect it will be in the rotation. What we thought, though, would be a very interesting alternative would be to play the game as part of the lead up to the Super Bowl. So we’ll be playing it on Sunday night in Miami in advance of the Super Bowl. That will bring more interest, clearly. It will bring more exposure for our great players, and we think be a positive. In addition, we think that while we’ll miss the Super Bowl guys, it really puts an emphasis on team accomplishment. Make it to the Super Bowl: that’s the crowning achievement. But if you get the opportunity to play in the Pro Bowl, it’s a great opportunity and it’s something that you deserve as an individual player, those accolades, and we’d like to put you on the biggest stage, and we believe the biggest stage is prior to the Super Bowl. But we do continue and hope to be in Hawaii.”

I think this is a great decision. As much as I love Hawaii (OK, I’ve never been there but I’ve heard really good things), this game after the Super Bowl is anti-climatic. Kicking off Super Bowl week with the AFC-NFC Pro Bowl game seems like a no-brainer. If it’s successful (and why wouldn’t it be?), I don’t see the Pro Bowl returning to Hawaii anytime in the near future.

Source: NFL Media, Photo: Newscom