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At the age of 12, football was a brand new game to me, it was just starting to be shown on Channel 4 in the UK, a very big deal in 1984, as it was virtually unheard of to the majority of people in Britain at the time.

After the Super Bowl, there was always one more game to play, the Pro Bowl all-star game in Hawaii, that time of year when all the best of the best would assemble and play out the last game of another season. It always felt good albeit slightly sad, as you'd know that no more football was to played; one of the longest off-seasons in sports awaited.

The Pro Bowl was like a real-life fantasy football game, with all the best players going head-to-head to see who wins. There was no other game where you could have hated rival players standing side by side on the same team, letting the players wear their own team helmets has always been a likable aspect of the Pro Bowl game, but it's really the only good novelty aspect it has going for it.

The curiosity factor has started to wane more in recent times, maybe it's the farce of the game, the many rule changes from the standard version make the game somewhat unbalanced. A good name for the all-star game would be NFL-lite, football that's been de-clawed and muzzled, to the point it's a aerobic workout and no more for all involved. But I keep watching.

If the game was allowed to be real, then maybe fewer players would show up, but the Pro Bowl is supposed to showcase the best, so show us what your best is. There are times when the odd big hit dares to show itself , but it's a rarity. Highlights usually consist of deep passes and long runs, defenses are restricted to base coverage, making big plays common place.

Getting voted to the Pro Bowl is a great achievement, but many of the top players don't show up, this leads to many alternates showing up in Hawaii. The replacement players are the next down the Pro Bowl voting, but you do question the validity of the game when many of the vote getters don't bother showing up for one reason or another. It is slowly losing it's appeal for the players, they left their best at the end of the season or playoffs, having this game serves no purpose other than a vacation for them.

The Pro Bowl is the long goodbye to another year of football, it's a bizarre one off game that isn't like anything else, it has it's many faults but I'm sure I'll keep watching while its still here.

Learn more about this author, Wayne Reeves.
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