Each year, the controversies surrounding All-Star games in professional sports are more interesting than the actual games themselves, leading to a rarely asked question: are all-star games worth playing at all?
As a kid, I remember genuinely looking forward to All-Star games just to see all of my favorite players on the field at once. When else do you get to see John Elway fake the handoff to Marshall Faulk before bombing it downfield to Keyshawn Johnson?
As I grew older, I discovered that sports aren’t all about superstars. What makes sports so exciting to watch is the energy a player puts into winning the contest, not the name on the back of his jersey. Due to the fact that All-Star games are usually meaningless, athletes have little incentive to put the same effort into them that they put into other games over the course of the season.
Major League Baseball recognized this problem and addressed it by awarding the winner of the All-Star game home field advantage in the World Series. While this has certainly made things a bit more exciting, it didn’t fix all the problems surrounding All-Star games. Organizations still fear their stars will get pointlessly injured and try to discourage them from participating. Some are so cautious that they instruct the All-Star coaches to only play their players for a specific period of time over the course of the game.
This is of course assuming that a team’s star players even make the All-Star roster.
Every year, worthy players are left out of the festivities. This is in part due to the absurd “fan vote” that leagues like using to pick all-stars. In theory, the fans should have a say in who they want to see play in a game completely tailored to their enjoyment. In practice, undeserving has-beens like Allen Iverson are anointed starters.
The “who got snubbed” discussion after the release of every All-Star list is pointless and inane. Players get snubbed and fans get unnecessarily upset about it every year, this year is no exception. Of course some quality players got snubbed in this year’s NBA All-Star Game because nobody wants to see benches twenty players deep.
All-Star games are designed to be fun for fans, but the stars’ apathy make them anything but. There are no furrowed brows of athletes trying to will their team to a championship like something out of a Gatorade commercial. Instead, you see Peyton Manning lobbing some passes like he’s in the backyard and LeBron James strolling down the lane for a dunk because the other nine guys on the court know that’s what the fans want to see.
This apathetic attitude is best on display when it comes to the NFL Pro Bowl, which was played yesterday. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell defied tradition and scheduled the game a week before the Super Bowl, as opposed to its usual slot a week afterwards. While he claims to have his reasons for the switch, it seems like the commissioner is simply trying to get it over with already.
“We’re seeing a lot more attention on the Pro Bowl than we’ve ever had before,” Goodell said in South Florida last Thursday. “[The attention] in and of itself is a success.”
Unfortunately, the Pro Bowl is only receiving more attention because it has become the worst joke in professional sports. The Pro Bowl players on each conference champion squad, 14 in all, are exempt from playing in order to rest for the Super Bowl. Another 17 are not playing due to injury and countless others have reportedly turned down invitations to play. The product of this madness has been laughable at best, with players like David Garrard (15 TD and 10 interceptions last season) supposedly “earning” Pro Bowl spots.
In “The Pro Bowl? Please,” Washington Post columnist Mike Wilbon said last week, “I wouldn’t even go to that if I was in Miami on Sunday afternoon with nothing to do.”
All of this leads to the conclusion that All-Star games, as a whole, have outlived their usefulness. Superstars, excluding those in baseball, could care less whether they win or lose because they have no reason to have any feelings. For this reason, sports fans like myself would rather nap than watch a Pro Bowl featuring Vince Young. When fans stop caring, the fan oriented nature of every All-Star game crumbles.
An easy solution would be to release the All-Star rosters, but don’t actually play a game. Essentially, this would be like the All-American squads in college football. Players would receive all the honor of being named one of the best without the garbage of playing in a meaningless game. Either they need to do that or sports leagues need to give all parties some sort of incentive to get involved. Motivation has certainly improved the MLB All-Star game, now it’s time to carry this idea over to other sports.
You can reach this columnist at sports@theeagleonline.com.
