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| National Football League commissioner Roger Goodell at the podium at the NFL Draft. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
The league has previously stated that it is thinking about ending the annual game, but that could change after yesterday. A source involved in the decision making process stated that the quality of play was much improved, but that does not indicate that the future of the game is certain.
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell had stated that he thought the quality of the game and effort of the players needed to improve, and in a chat with fans he stated that he noticed an improved quality and improved effort on the part of the players.
He also stated that over the next few weeks, he will be getting player input about the future of the game and the conditions under which the game will be played over the next few weeks.
One of the topics sure to be brought up at the annual owners meetings in March will also be the location of the game. The stands appeared mostly empty yesterday, and the league is thinking about moving the game to the host city for the Super Bowl.
It also appears that the players want the game to take place after the Super Bowl, a move I'm not sure will go over at all with the league, so I don't expect that to happen. One of the reasons the league moved the game to a week before the Super Bowl was to fill in what had otherwise been an empty week of football, hoping to generate more fan interest.
From the outside looking in, that tactic appears to have worked somewhat, but probably not to the level the league had hoped it would.
If the location of the Pro Bowl is moved to the host city for the Super Bowl, it probably wouldn't happen until the 2015 Super Bowl in Arizona, and that would also help boost fan interest in the game and generate more revenue for the host city.
