Pro Bowl tries to balance fun, competition

Like most of the players at the Pro Bowl, Richie Incognito hears the criticism.

The game lacks intensity. There’s not enough drama. It’s not real NFL football.

But Incognito, a Buffalo Bills guard, is like the vast majority of the 88 players invited to this all-star gathering Sunday night. He sees the Pro Bowl more as a celebration of achievement and as a way to thank the fans.

He wouldn’t change a thing.

“In my mind it’s as good as it should be,” Incognito said. “You really can’t ask guys to come out here and fly around at full speed when we’ve been off for the last two or three weeks. And some guys are just coming down here after conference championship games. Maybe make it more fan interactive, get the fans involved more, do more of the skills competition.”

The NFL has seemed open to ways to energize its end-of-the-year showcase that is now sandwiched between conference championship and Super Bowl weeks. A few years ago the league broke from the traditional AFC-NFC Pro Bowl matchup and allowed celebrity coaches to draft two teams.

Now, in hopes of giving the game a lift, the NFL has moved the Pro Bowl from Hawaii to Orlando, where it has become more of a weeklong event, complete with a re-imagined Skill Showdown. The AFC-NFC matchup has also returned after three years of nonconference games.

Still, it remains to be seen if the NFL can continue selling a game that bears little resemblance to the product it puts on the field during the season. The players come to the Pro Bowl to have fun, not get hurt and maybe win.

“This Pro Bowl for me in a sense is special because you are coming here to celebrate what you’ve accomplished,” New York Giants receiver Odell Beckham, Jr. “It’s a lot of fun.”

Seattle Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman says the intensity would rise and more invited players would show up if the NFL gave them their weekly game salaries. Under the collective bargaining agreement, each player from the winning team will make $61,000 this week and the losing players will take home $30,000.

“You pay them what you are paying them and you get this performance,” Sherman said. “It’s a different element . ... I guarantee you less guys would miss the Pro Bowl if you told you are going to pay them their normal salary for one more game.”

Former NFL player and coach Herm Edwards says the game as played now is fine. He says the Pro Bowl is not about the game, it’s about the fans and the players giving back. Thousands of fans have been out at ESPN’s Wide World of Sports complex this week watching both the AFC and NFC practice. Network-Wisconsin reported. Lombardi was the Giants’ offensive coordinator and became head coach of the Green Bay Packers in 1959.

The seven Lombardi-related items raised a total of nearly $127,600.

“The auction did well overall and the final tally of the Lombardi Collection came in higher than expected,” said Terry Melia of SCP Auctions. “The two items that far exceeded expectations were the Patek Philippe wristwatch and the JFK telegram. Combined, they brought in $30,000 more than we originally estimated. These were all outstanding final prices realized.”

Lombardi’s son, Vince Lombardi Jr., put the items up for auction, saying they were in a safe deposit box “collecting dust.”

“With exception of the Giants championship ring, it didn’t mean much to me,” Lombardi Jr. said before the auction. “I don’t really have any emotional attachment to them, except for the Giants ring. I was a water boy and ball boy for all that time.”