Apparently the 2010 Pro Bowl will be played one week before the 2010 Super Bowl.
The Pro Bowl will be played one week before the Super Bowl in 2010 and both games will be staged in Dolphin Stadium, a person directly involved in the decision told The Associated Press on Monday.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the NFL has not announced the move, but Hawaii’s governor and Honolulu’s mayor both confirmed the situation later Monday.
“While I am disappointed the Pro Bowl likely will not be played in Hawaii in 2010, I respect the NFL’s decision to play the post season all-star game in the same city as the Super Bowl, one week before the Super Bowl, on a one-year test basis,” Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle said in a statement.
It’s not a new notion to have the game moved up to take place between the conference championship games and the Super Bowl. The NFL has discussed it multiple times in recent years, and commissioner Roger Goodell told the AP last month that having the game precede the Super Bowl would avoid a “somewhat anticlimactic” ending to the season.
“Plans for future Pro Bowls are not final, but we have stated publicly several times that we are giving strong consideration to moving the Pro Bowl to the week before the Super Bowl,” NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said. “We also have been exploring playing future Pro Bowls at the site of the Super Bowl as well as in Honolulu.”
So what happens with those players that were voted into the Pro Bowl but are also playing in the Super Bowl? They obviously can’t play in the Pro Bowl and risk injury, so they just lose out on the honor of making the All-Star game? (Not that it’s much of an honor for players these days.)
This is a stupid idea and it’s sad that Hawaii is going to lose even more tourism that year than it already has because of the bad economy.
