All-Star problem
There are obvious flaws with the All-Star games in the NFL, NBA, and MLB. The players don’t care to play in them (16 players who were selected to this years MLB All-Star game will not attend for one reason or another). They don’t matter. They artificially enhance stats for stars when talking about the Hall Of Fame (“He made 16 All-Star games” “He only made 12”) and the games these players skip still count toward those stats. They change the rules and make the game even more boring (no blitzes during the NFL All-Star Game). Defense virtually disappears. Yes, the games still sell out, but it has been years since I have heard anyone talk about watching or going to an All-Star game. Here’s the good, the bad, and the ugly surrounding the All-Star game problem and what I would do to fix it.
Events surrounding the All-Star Game
MLB-Home Run Derby-I think the HR Derby is a definite plus and people still enjoy it. I personally think it is a little bit boring, but hey, it is baseball we are talking about.
The Future’s game-Boring, I have no clue who any of these kids are.
NBA-Dunk Contest-This used to be one of the best events of the year, however, in recent years the stars have not elected to participate and it has dropped a few notches. Blake Griffin shows some promise but jumping over/around the hood of a Kia was unimpressive. The NBA/Fans/Owners simply need to give the players some incentive to compete in this competition. The days are long gone when players were rivals of other players and would take any chance they got to show their rival up (Jordan v. Everyone, Bird v. Magic, all this is gone mainly because of the Heat and secondarily because of the Celtics and all this talk about joining forces). It just isn’t nearly as fun as it used to be. Yes, the players make plenty of money and they should want to give it their all and perform for the fans, but the fact of the matter is they don’t care. However, I’d be willing to bet they would care more if money, fame, or success was on the line. We should bring back the talks of-Jordan is the best player ever because of his 6 championships, 6 Finals MVP’s, 5 regular season MVP’s, and, oh yeah, because he won 2 NBA Slam Dunk Titles (seriously those are 2 more reasons he is better than Lebron… Jus Sayin).
3-pt shootout-it is what it is, some people like it and others don’t. I don’t think it hurts the All-Star weekend and I personally enjoy watching it, but I am not crushed if I miss it.
Rookie/Sophomore Challenge- I personally love it, even though there is no defense. It gives us a chance to see the best young players in the league compete before they become too cool for the All-Star weekend. And unlike the MLB Future’s game, we actually know who these guys are and have seen what they can do against the best talent in the world.
NFL-absolutely nothing-this is a big problem-I personally think they need to bring back some skilled challenges. Every position should have a skills challenge and the players voted into the game should participate for prizes or money for charities etc. I loved watching the 40 yd. dash to see who the fastest player in shorts was. There could be bench press competitions, cone drills, shuttles, high jump, broad jump, passing challenges, etc. The NFL All-Star weekend is the worst in my opinion.
The Game itself
MLB-there is a pseudo prize, but I still think it’s boring. More players skip this than any other All-Star game. It is not close enough to a real game for it to play like a real game because of all the pitching changes and substitutions. Unlike Basketball and Football, substitutions are not a norm in Baseball so these games seem fake/staged. I think the MLB All-Star game is somewhere in the middle but could use some fresh new ideas and incentives to get the best players that the fans want to see on the field.
NBA-In my opinion, this is the best All-Star game/weekend left. The best players usually play, and they put on a show. It’s fun, and the Dunk Contest is still exciting to watch in case something cool happens (Like Superman Flying to victory or Nate “Spudd Webb” Robinson putting on the Kryptonite suite and “stealing” one from the man of steal.) Most of the players, including the big-time stars, still get excited about the All-Star weekend and go crazy when they see a big dunk or an illusive pass. And when the players get excited, the fans get excited. The NBA game needs the least change in my opinion.
NFL-The best sport has the worst All-Star game/weekend. I have some propositions that could seriously increase its watchability. First (as I said before) bring in some skills’ challenges. Second-forget the game, just cut it out completely. Don’t freak out, just listen. No one wants to see anyone get hurt in a fake game that doesn’t matter like this. No fan wants to see it, no coach wants to see it, and no player wants to be a part of it. Therefore, big hits are eliminated, blitzing is gone, defense is gone, and what we love about NFL football is basically gone (besides Tom Brady’s hair and Peyton Manning’s Laser-Rocket arm). So what would we do instead (in addition to the skills challenges)? A flag football tounrnament. Make it an all-day thing or and all-weekend thing. Basically each year three “strings” of players are voted onto each all star team (for this tournament that would be changed to four “strings” per conference which would set up four teams on each side of the bracket). So a bracket would be set up with all the AFC teams on one side and the NFC teams on the other to battle it out for the top team in their conference. Then top team from each conference would play each other for the championship. The teams could be picked for the players or we could televise a live draft with the QB’s as captains. This year might have looked something like this
AFC SQUADS
Phillip Rivers Peyton Manning Tom Brady
Arian Foster Chris Johnson Jamaal Charles
Reggie Wayne Dwayne Bowe Wes Welker
Brandon Lloyd Ed Reed Zach Miller
Troy Polamalu Asante Samuel Andre Johnson
Mercedes Lewis Antonio Gates Mike Wallace
Darrelle Revis Champ Bailey Devin McCourty
Michael Griffin Eric Berry Brandon Merriweather
Shane Lechler Sebastian Janikowski Billy Cundiff
NFC SQUADS
Michael Vick Aaron Rodgers Drew Brees
Michael Turner Steven Jackson Adrian Peterson
Roddy White Calvin Johnson Larry Fitzgerald
Jason Witten Tony Gonzalez Miles Austin
Devin Hester Desean Jackson Nnamdi Asomugha
Charles Woodson Marcus Colston Greg Jennings
DeAngelo Hall Brent Grimes Antoine Winfield
Antrel Rolle Adrian Wilson Roman Harper
Mat McBriar David Akers David Buehler
Risk of injury would be way down, defenders could actually play defense, kick offs and field goals included, and blitzing would be allowed. Many variations of this idea could work and I think it would turn into a really fun, new, cool, and marketable weekend.
I guess that’s enough All-Star talk, if you have any suggestions feel free to post a comment.
P.S. I realize it’s the Pro Bowl in the NFL, but for sake of flow just go with me on calling it the All-Star game… Thanks.
No comments:
Post a Comment