Nobody wants to play in the Pro Bowl, and Hall of Fame quarterback Troy Aikman thinks you have him to thank for that.
Or to blame him for it, if you were ever really invested in the Pro Bowl in its original form.
Aikman said his decision to leave the Pro Bowl game early in 1993 got him in some hot water with the NFL and even got him summoned into Paul Tagliabue’s office to explain himself.
He told the story on a recent appearance on Sports Radio 96.7 in Dallas (via the Dallas Morning News).
Aikman literally left the stadium in the third quarter of the game and did not stick around for the finish after he was done playing. This was seen as a huge deal at the time because the Pro Bowl was still considered somewhat of a legitimate game. But in Aikman’s view, nobody wanted to be there.
“I said Commissioner with all due respect, nobody wants to play in this football game. I said they want to go to Hawaii for a week, but no one wants to play in the Pro Bowl.”
It was at that point that Aikman said he suggested scrapping the game and doing a Network Battle of the Stars sort of thing in its place.
“I said here’s what I suggest… I said How about we just do like Battle of the Network Stars, only we make a made-for-television type of event and he was not happy about that suggestion either. And it took what 30 years or however long it’s taken to get to this point, but I kind of take credit for that, quite honestly.”
This year the NFL completely scrapped the idea of a traditional football game and is replacing it with a series of seven-on-seven flag football games and various skills competitions that will take place in Las Vegas. Even that has not stopped players from avoiding the game and a series of replacements being needed.
It also comes after several different format attempts (fantasy drafts, different rules) to generate more interest from players. But the effort level dropped to such an embarrassing degree the league finally decided to get drastic with it.
Whether or not Aikman deserves credit for the new format, his story does show one thing. Nobody has wanted to actually play in this game for decades. The players just finally made that point more obviously known and have more power to impact change.
