Roger Goodell acknowledged that the 2012 NFL Pro Bowl has made fans unhappy and a solution must be found. All options are on the table for consideration.
Commissioner Goodell has heard the fans but also the players, criticize the level of effort that was expended in last Sunday's 2012 NFL Pro Bowl.
Aaron Rodgers did more than hint at it, he came right out and said it, without naming names. Rodgers was just named the NFL MVP for 2011 and a complaint has more weight when spoken by him.
"I was just surprised that some of the guys either didn't want to play or when they were in there didn't put any effort into it," Rodgers said about his NFC teammates, in an offense-heavy game won by the NFC 59-41.
The complaints tend to center on the defensive squads and special team players who go light on the tackling. No one wants to put a fellow player in a cast or a surgical ward for an exhibition game.
Free agents on the market risk their future salaries and those on lock down guaranteed contracts don't want to consider being out of the ever present competition in off-season workouts and training camp that begins in July.
While media members have criticized past games, this year's edition brought more than the usual share of griping and ridicule. Fans added to it on message boards and fan sites along with the league's MVP, but Roger Goodell paid more attention to those in attendance at the game.
Speaking on Super Bowl Sunday as a guest on ESPN, the Commissioner said, "I really didn't think that was the kind of football that we want to be demonstrating for our fans. And you heard it from the fans. The fans were actively booing in the stands. They didn't like what they were seeing."
All solutions are on the table and that puts fear in the tourism czars in the state of Hawaii, as well as players who like to take a paid vacation after a long season.
"We're either going to have to improve the quality of what we're doing in the Pro Bowl or consider other changes or even considering eliminating the game if that's the kind of quality game we're going to provide."
The Pro Bowl has been tinkered with for a few years, but it returned to its original site of Hawaii after two years of being held on the site of the Super Bowl.
In years past, the all-star game was scheduled for the weekend after the Super Bowl, changed along with the venue to fill the football-empty Sunday between the conference championship games and the Super Bowl.
Image credit: Wikimedia Commons
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