The unofficial start to the National Football League season saw the New York Giants defeat the Buffalo Bills 17-13 in Canton, Ohio Sunday night.

It has been tradition to begin the new year with the Hall of Fame Game, which culminates in Hall of Fame weekend.

But I would like to propose a change.

I was thinking Saturday night about how much I dislike the Hall of Fame Game and the Pro Bowl.

Preseason games are pretty much worthless to the hardcore fan because they only get to see the starters for a series or two.

Yes, it’s nice to see some of the potential stars of the future, but for me, I am done watching the game by the end of the first half.

The second half usually is full of names that will never see a regular season NFL roster.

I have disliked the Pro Bowl for a long time now.

It used to be fun when it was played following the Super Bowl. It was almost like a video game with plenty of offense and very little defense.

Then, the NFL thought it would “improve” the game by moving it to the week before the Super Bowl. Boy were they wrong.

How is it an improvement if the top players from the two Super Bowl teams are not allowed to compete in the game? If I was a fan that paid for a ticket, I would want to see those stars playing, not just showing up to be introduced.

So here is my radical idea.

Let’s do away with the Hall of Fame Game and move the Pro Bowl to Canton. Ohio instead.

That way all of the stars would get to compete, the people attending Hall of Fame weekend would get to see a better game and we at home would be entertained throughout the entire contest.

I am sure one of the drawbacks would be the potential for injury. But that potential exists no matter when you play the game.

On the flipside, all of the players should be healthy enough to compete for their conference.

The NFL continues to tinker with Pro Bowl. Last season it was a draft with no conference alignment.

So why not try out my idea?

It couldn’t hurt.

 

Scott Novak is sports editor of Leader Publications. He can be reached at scott.novak@leaderpub.com.