I can understand that, especially the hitting on the receivers. As for the Pro-Bowl, that game has always been played with handcuffs. It's just gotten really obvious the past couple of years. In regards to kick-offs, well, isn't that what college is proposing as well?
Yeah they're proposing it in college also, and I don't like it.
As for the pro bowl, yeah it's deteriorated to a revolting joke of a game. But there was roughly a 10 year period when the Pro Bowl was a treat, the most brutally physical game of the season. It sounds like ridiculous exaggeration until you go back and watch some of those tapes, from the mid '80s to the mid '90s, parallel to the NFC's domination of the Super Bowl. The AFC was so embarrassed they used the Pro Bowl as a grudge match but the NFC was hardly willing to roll over and surrender. Reggie White and the NFC defensive line dominated the game every season, to the point it was dangerous to be a quarterback in that game.
Every season the Pro Bowl over/under would open at 41 and wise guys immediately would pound the under, down to 37.5 or 38. And it felt like stealing. You knew that if you had under the early number of 41 there was very little chance to lose on offensive merit. It would have to be defensive or special teams scores.
Check the scores from that era -- 10-6 in '86, 15-6 in '87, 21-15 in '91, 17-3 in '93. One game ended 23-20 in overtime but it was ridiculously misleading. The game was 20-6 NFC with a few minutes remaining, with virtually no offense all day, before a blocked field goal run back for an AFC touchdown, then Steve Young fumbled immediately to set up the tying touchdown. I felt like slamming the wall when I lost that under.
It ended in stunning fashion in '94 when Barry Switzer was NFC coach and treated the game like a lark. He told his players to have fun, while he was literally eating a hot dog on the sidelines. The AFC rushed for a zillion yards in the first half and my bet had no chance. I found out later that Switzer had treated college all star games the same way when he coached them, as a treat for the players and not to be taken seriously.
The following season it returned to normalcy, 20-13, but once Denver broke the long AFC drought in the Super Bowl the Pro Bowl grudge match ended and it gradually turned into the defenseless farce of today. The over/under number has doubled and nowadays the same guys who bet under jump in to wager over.
Any time I hear somebody insist the Pro Bowl has always been a cupcake glorified flag football game I have to laugh.