I still despise their orange jerseys, but maybe that's just because I live in close proximity to a whole bunch of University of Tennessee fans.

On another somewhat artistically related note, does anyone else feel saddened by how much blander the Super Bowl field has gotten? Used to have a unique logo for the game at midfield, with the team's helmets at the 30 yard line and then colored end zones. Like so...

Now it's just a much more boring NFL logo at midfield, with a standardized Super Bowl logo at the 30, and then colored endzones.

This year will probably be a bit less dreary, with the gold hopefully livening things up a bit, but it seems like games at neutral sites like these should be chances for the field designers to get as inventive as possible. And instead, between the Super Bowl and the CFP Championship, it seems like it's just getting less and less interesting to look at.

I can rate them for you

#1 Seahawks

then the other 31 teams tie for last place....

He meant ranked in order of being aesthetically pleasing, not ranked in the order of which uniforms were inspired by a head on collision between trucks carrying radioactive waste and the contents of porta potties left over from Burning Man.

With those rack strips down the legs?  Seriously, what's that all about?  Do they attach candy to them on off days?

Speaking of the Pro Bowl, here's a possibility that came to mind.

Arguably the biggest problems with the Pro Bowl is that it happens after/during the playoffs. The game have been the most intense contests of the entire year. What essentially amounts to a pickup game with pads just isn't going to be engaging by contrast.

The MLB, NBA, and NHL have their games during the middle of their season, in order to serve as a break in the action. Which is fine; all three have very long regular seasons, and an all star break helps to serve as a change of pace. Putting a change of pace just before the climax of your season is a terrible idea, however, and it's just going to seem boring by comparison.

Which means that the NFL would be best served by finding a more boring part of the season to insert the Pro Bowl in. Putting it during the middle of the season is an iffy proposition, if only because of logistics, so how about before the start of the season? What if, say, the Hall of Fame preseason game was replaced with the Pro Bowl featuring last years' nominees? Starters will probably wind up playing as much as they would have in any preseason game (that is to say not much), players wouldn't be dealing with injuries from a long season leaving them inclined to sit out, and above all else, people might show some interest. No one wants to watch an ultimately meaningless football game when the Super Bowl is just around the corner (or has already happened, in the case of the earlier format). But when there hasn't been any football for six months? I'd bet on ratings getting a significant boost.

Also, please bring back conference teams. This fantasy esque draft thing is stupid.

But it features Tyrod Taylor as one of the best AFC quarterbacks*. I'll be there with bells on.







*Who bothered to accept the invite.

I have long thought the NFL should have the Pro Bowl in the middle of the season. Then every team has a bye week at the same time, and there is still interest in the game.

Absolutely no one would play in the middle of the season due to the chance of injury. We'd be down to Blaine Gabbert handing off to Trent Richardson. Everyone else in the NFL would suddenly and mysteriously show up on the injury report with pulled groins and ankle sprains.

That's if the Players Association would even allow the Pro Bowl to take place during the regular season, which it won't.

They could treat it the same way the NBA does, if you miss the Pro Bowl with injury then you can't play the following week. Injury risk isn't an issue with the Pro Bowl. Can anyone remember the last time someone was hit with a big injury during the Pro Bowl? I remember some Pats guy having his career ended in some flag football game that might have been Pro Bowl related, but it wasn't the Pro Bowl. And it's the Patriots, who cares.

There's really no solution here because the game is so watered down it makes it boring to watch. It's not like other sports where there might be less emphasis on defense and contact in their AS games, but they make up for it with awesome fan service events and high scoring, entertaining games. They should bring back things like the QB challenge. Hell, they could get rid of the entire game and just make it a bunch of position specific challenges, even that would be more entertaining than the Pro Bowl.