Chapter 668: Skills Challenge
When people talk about all-star games, the first thing that comes to mind is the NBA.
This also creates a misconception that the NBA All-Star Weekend has been a huge success. In some ways, this is a wrong idea, but from another perspective, it is a correct one.
The reason it's wrong is because in terms of ratings, the NBA All-Star Weekend is nothing. The real ratings king on the North American continent is still the NFL.
The annual NFL Pro Bowl's average viewership fluctuates between 10 million and 15 million, and its ratings can reach a range of 6.5 to 8.0.
These numbers are far lower than the NFL's own regular season and even more so for the playoffs, but compared to the NBA, it easily surpasses the NBA's Eastern and Western Conference Finals, and the gap with the latter's All-Star Weekend is even greater.
In other words, in terms of viewership, even the least-watched Pro Bowl, the NFL completely dominates the other three leagues.
The reason it's right is because in terms of buzz, the NBA All-Star Weekend is far ahead and has even created a global phenomenon.
The dunk contest and three-point contest are highly entertaining and fun, showcasing the charm of basketball to the fullest. They attract countless eyes, and every year after the All-Star Weekend, video clips can go viral on social media, spreading widely.
Although the ratings are far behind the NFL and MLB, the buzz they create is a leader, which in turn creates more opportunities for NBA's advertising and commercial promotion.
In this regard, the NFL has always failed to keep up.
After Roger Goodell became the league's commissioner, he has been thinking about how to operate the Pro Bowl and develop its additional value, hoping to turn the Pro Bowl into a national entertainment event, just like the Super Bowl.
But American football is a sport full of confrontation and power. It's often difficult for new and innovative skills to be visually appealing, which makes it difficult for both the skills challenge and the Pro Bowl to have a new lease on life.
In recent years, the Pro Bowl has been making corresponding reforms and explorations every year, hoping to find more common ground between this all-star game and the audience. They hope not only to attract professional viewers but also to generate interest from casual and amateur viewers.
This year is no exception.
The NFL's Pro Bowl has always been divided into two parts: an all-star game and a skills challenge as a warm-up. Both events revolve around the AFC versus NFC matchup.
In the skills challenge, the AFC and NFC each send ten players to compete in different skill events, such as the precision passing challenge, the field relay challenge, the wide receiver catching challenge, and the kicker's accuracy challenge. These are all regular events, but the rules and format may change each year.
However, overall, compared to the NBA's dunk contest and three-point contest, the NFL's skills challenge still lacks confrontation and urgency. More importantly, every position in American football is relatively specialized, and the skills and techniques are completely different. It's not like basketball, where all players can participate in the dunking and three-point shooting competitions, which brings all the attention to one place.
To integrate all the Pro Bowl players, the American football skills challenge has to sacrifice more of the individual's star power and emphasize teamwork. For example, for wide receiver catching, the quarterback must throw the ball. This makes the skills challenge less exciting and more like a practice session, which is naturally not very attractive to amateur viewers.
This year, the league made a bold attempt.
In the skills challenge, they added a freestyle challenge, highlighting the players' individual abilities, similar to the three-point and dunk contests. They arranged special events that emphasized the unique styles and roles of each position on the field, such as a quarterback's passing, a wide receiver and a cornerback's matchup, an offensive and a defensive lineman's collision, and a kicker's long-distance field goal.
Not only that, but the skills challenge also further opened up the registration process, adding drama and comedy.
First, all players can sign up for any individual event. A wide receiver can participate in the quarterback's passing competition, a tight end can participate in the lineman's collision competition, and so on. The emphasis is on participation and performance.
Second, all players can participate. In the past, only players who were on the Pro Bowl roster could participate in the skills challenge, but this year, registration was fully open. Just like in the NBA, anyone who was interested could sign up. That's why players like Watt and Cam, who were not on the Pro Bowl roster, were also in Honolulu.
Third, the individual events don't count toward the Pro Bowl matchup. In previous years, each event in the skills challenge was scored, and the players represented their respective conferences to compete. The final score would determine whether the AFC or NFC won. This year, however, they tried to give individual "championship" titles to the players, just like a dunk champion or a three-point champion.
This can be said to be a bold and risky attempt.
Some things that work for the NBA may not work for the NFL. Despite this, Goodell continues to try various combinations and permutations, trying to unlock more possibilities for the Pro Bowl. What the final result will be is yet to be seen.
On January 28, at 2:00 PM local time in Hawaii, Aloha Stadium in Honolulu hosted the first part of the Pro Bowl—the skills challenge.
Walt Coleman III, a former professional football player, arrived at the stadium early today because he would be a live reporter for NBC and participate in the broadcast of the skills challenge. He had to enter the stadium in advance to prepare for the live broadcast.
Leaving the locker room, Coleman tidied up his jersey and hair, making sure he was in the best condition to face the event. Before he could even enter the stadium, a turbulent and boiling commotion came at him, surging like a storm throughout the player tunnel. Every pore on his skin could deeply feel the fanaticism.
Coleman's movements paused slightly.
In previous years, the Pro Bowl had always been lukewarm, and the skills challenge, which was held a day earlier, was even more so.
To set up the equipment for the competition, the skills challenge was held on a spacious and open practice field. The stands for the audience around it were relatively simple. It didn't look like a professional game but more like a high school game. Three thousand spectators were already a rare number, and the vast and spacious field seemed a bit deserted.
This year, in line with the reform, the skills challenge was held directly at Aloha Stadium, the venue for the Pro Bowl. The stadium could hold 48,000 spectators. The atmosphere wasn't deserted at all but was even more lively. This wasn't right!
Coleman quickly picked up his pace and rushed out of the shadow of the player tunnel, plunging into the brilliant golden sunshine. Then, a surging red color came at him fiercely, like all the stars in the sky exploding at once. The dazzling and brilliant color came crashing into the depths of his pupils. The unreasonable shock instantly magnified to the extreme, as if even the blue sky had been completely dyed a magnificent red.
Completely packed!
It wasn't a strict sense of being completely packed. The large Aloha Stadium still had noticeable empty spaces in the large patches of blue seats, but a mighty red color was spread out across the stadium. The stark contrast between red and blue created a hot and boiling color that filled the entire world, creating a magnificent and noisy atmosphere that was comparable to a full house.
With such a magnificent scene, not to mention the skills challenge, even the Pro Bowl may not have had such a scene.
Coleman was truly stunned. After thirty years in the league, this was definitely the first time he had seen a Pro Bowl like this. An absurd thought even popped into his mind: Did I go to the wrong stadium?
Obviously not.
Gradually, his feverish brain cooled down, and then Coleman noticed that there was not only red in the stadium but also white, black, green, blue, and other colorful colors, from the thirty-two professional NFL teams. Every fan couldn't wait to put on their home team's jersey to show their support.
But the problem was that the red was too eye-catching and too dominant. More than half of the spectators chose to wear red jerseys. That bright and magnificent red was like the rising sun, spreading across the sky, and with an unreasonable and dominant posture, it turned the entire Aloha Stadium into a unique, bright red.
He took a closer look, and the red was not the red of the Arizona Cardinals, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Atlanta Falcons, or the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. It was the red and gold of the San Francisco 49ers!
The unique colors that belonged to San Francisco, the 49ers, and the Bay Area were wantonly and defiantly boiling, like a flag fluttering in the wind. They turned the Pro Bowl into their home stadium with dignity and opened their arms as hosts to welcome the arrival of other teams and players.
After realizing this, Coleman's slightly open jaw could not close. He stood there dumbfounded, quietly feeling the baptism and settling of this wave.
Someone once said that the number 14 quarterback of the San Francisco 49ers had stepped onto the professional stage by making history, and he was bound to create a world of his own. In response, people expressed hesitation and confusion. Can the Asian community really accept the sport of American football?
Today, at this moment, in this place, Aloha Stadium gave a definite answer.
Although Coleman didn't seek further proof, a voice kept echoing deep in his mind: Lu Ke.
The record-breaking attendance for a skills challenge, the record-breaking home-field dominance at the Pro Bowl, and the record-breaking moment for a league broadcast... All this grandeur and glory had the same answer, the same correct solution, the same breakthrough.
Maybe all of this was unbelievable, but it was happening in reality.
"Marshall! Marshall!"
"Fitzgerald! Ahhh!"
"Rodgers! Rodgers! Rodgers!"
"Big Ben! Hey, Big Ben!"
"Marshawn Lynch!"
"Von Miller! Ray Lewis! Clay Matthews!"
"Earl Thomas! Thomas!"
...
In the vast and spacious stadium, screams and shouts floated around in the wind. They rose and fell, were endless, and were everywhere. They stirred up wave after wave of sound waves, eagerly calling out the names of their idols. They adorned the brilliant golden sunshine, outlining a beautiful landscape and lifting the curtain on the Pro Bowl.
But gradually, the shouts began to condense into one. The same cheer from everyone gradually gained the upper hand. Involuntarily, the other fans all stopped cheering and looked around for the source of the sound. Only then did they realize that it was everywhere. Wherever there was a red and gold jersey, that shout was roaring.
It was as if... Aloha Stadium was answering Coleman's question.
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