Pro Bowl tries points system, flag football
LAS VEGAS — The NFL finally stopped pretending its all-star game was an actual game, and is breathing life into the exhibition with Sunday’s Pro Bowl Games.
There will be no tackle football played for the first time — not that there was much tackling in recent years, more like two-hand touch. Flag football is now the marquee event.
Will the dramatically different format work? The league desperately hopes so. Rather than a winnertake-all game, a series of events — each of which accumulates three points — lead up to three flag football contests to determine the winning conference.
“I think the format’s cool because it’s less taxing on the body.” Green Bay Packers cornerback Jaire Alexander said. “A lot of guys finished the season injured and come out here and run around with some flags. Who wouldn’t like that?”
New York Giants running back Saquon Barkley also gave a thumbs up.
“It’s fun,” Barkley said. “For a guy like me, especially, to participate in a flag football game and the skills challenge, I’m competitive. It makes you feel like a little kid again. And hopefully, it puts smiles on fans’ and little kids’ faces.”
Four skills events took place Thursday, and the AFC will try to extend its five-game winning streak after taking a 9-3 lead by winning the precision passing competition, three-event lightning round and the long drive. The NFC won in dodgeball.
Sunday brings the end of the skills portion: the finals of the best catch, an obstacle race, a special teams game called kicktac-toe and a strength contest. Then the conferences will play each other in two flag football games, each worth six points.
The total points from all the contests will be the score entering the third and final flag football game.
Got all that?
A clear scoring system during the competition would help. Those watching ESPN on Thursday were able to keep up because the network regularly updated viewers, but inside the Las Vegas Raiders’ facility, there was no scoreboard nor any announcements of which events were about to begin — nor any results afterward.
That shouldn’t be a problem Sunday. The score already was on the scoreboard during Saturday’s media day.
Broncos: Denver named Sean Payton the 20th head coach in franchise history on Friday, 40 days after firing rookie head coach Nathaniel Hackett.