The Pro Bowl ...let's respect it

[Mike Bass]

I have read some of the comments on the news and rumors feature about the Pro Bowl  and I think that it is worth a thread before the article get's over-ran by more articles.

Heres my opinion on "stuffing the ballot box"...

As a fan of football and the Pro Bowl for many years, I would like for every fan, no matter who their favorite team  is to respect the opportunity that the NFL has given them to let them participate in the Pro Bowl voting. The Pro Bowl is not put into place for fans to get one last chance  to see their team play another game, so we should not be trying to vote in our entire team . It is there for the best of the best to compete against each other and be recognized for their accomplishments for that particular season as well to be a treat for EVERY fan who support the NFL.

We say "why is it a big deal when our vote only counts for 1/3 of the process?"...Let me tell you what we do when we abuse our priveldge. Say that there's a toss up between 2 more deserving players and one barely beats out another, fans who really would like to see certain players compete in the game may have just been cheated out of seeing a deserving player because 1/3 of the process was blown. Not to mention that the player may have been cheated out of  bonus money for making the pro bowl roster because we did not take the time to really review the ballot and make a viable choice but only voted for our team.

I can almost gaurantee that we are going to ask "how did one player make the roster over another?"...misusing the voting process is how this happens.

I wouldn't think that a player who is underserving would think that because his fandom voted for him, that it was a great show of support. I would think that he would know that he  could've been  replaced by any "Joe Blow" and "Joe Blow" would have gotten the votes that he got from his team's fans simply because he was on a team who fans decided to stuff the ballot.

We should really seperate the pro bowl from the regular season and treat it as it is meant to be...I for one would like to see a competitive contest.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Who I think will make it on our team is....

Clinton Portis ... He should be a lock with Adrian Peterson and Michael Turner at Running back.

Mike Sellers...... With Tony Richardson (the FB in the Pro Bowl last season) having moved on to the AFC and the Jets, Sellers being the runner up last season and having done nothing to hurt his status this season, I also think that he should be somewhat of a lock.

Chris Cooley.....I think that it will be Cooley and Witten again at TE but I think that Cooley will start this season.

London Fletcher...Although I do not think that he as much of a lock as we may think that he is, I think that he will make it because he has been cheated out of it for so many years...I think that Jon Beason of the Carolina Panthers will be voted the starter with London as the reserve...BUT it is a very good  chance that Jonathan Vilma of the Saints will beat London out at MLB and he may not make it at all.

Ethan Albright...I do not see where "the Red Snapper" has done anything to hurt his reputation as the best long snapper in the NFC.

[Skins12th]

I cast my vote and it was fun to think that I may have had a small part in getting some of our very deserving players to the Pro Bowl. But the more I have learned about the process and seen how it has played out so far---I personally love Suisham, but after the season he's had---Pro Bowl material, really?? I don't think the fans should have a vote in this. It is my understanding that this honor goes to the most talented/productive players--not the most popular. I know some things about our players and practically nothing of substance about other players. I am not a fully informed voter---how can I choose the most deserving players across the board? I have a sense after the hub-bub the Redskins-heavy first round has spawned it won't surprise me if they re-think the whole process. It would be just as well, IMHO.

[ldysknzfn]

Agree w/these 2 posts.  I didn't vote "The Redskins Ticket" b/c obviously there were ppl on the ballot that didn't deserve a spot at the Pro Bowl.  I voted for the Redskins players in their respective catagories if they were to deserving imo.  The others I couldn't bring myself to vote for.  I think voting like that cheapens the process and makes our fans look like they are clueless.  This of course is my opinion and others are entitled to their own opinions and I don't knock how others voted.

I, for one, was flabbergasted at how 13 Cowboys got in last year.  Most of those players didn't deserve it either.  I don't know how many made due to fan voting however.

I think the only players worthy from our squad this year are:

Fletcher
Portis
Cooley
Albright
Horton

I don't think Samuels deserves to go this time.  He's been beat at that line more times than I can count.  Whether it's injury or whatever he's not been "that" guy this season on our line.

[Simone]

Well... After I saw 13 Cowboys making it in to the probowl last year.. I said to myself that this a bunch of crap...So I said to myself next year I will vote, vote, and vote again. But please keep in mind that I was not the only one to place 200,000 some votes for those 9-11 redskins. So why did no one say anything like that when those 13 cowboys made it in?

I don't think that when our fans voted for everyone that is makes us look like we don't know anything about football...It's just states that we take this serious and support our team. I still say just because we fans voted these Redskins in does not mean all of them gonna make it. My deserving players are

Portis    (well deserved and he is not done yet)
Fletcher (should have been their a long time ago)
Cooley   (you have a choice of two TD in that category..who is better than Cooley  or Witten?) Plus Cooley leads our team in catches
Sellers   (the other good one is headgecock something (giants) but mike should be in
Horton  (all the best safties are in the AFC anyways) as Rookie he made a big impact)
Rogers  (Tell me of any other CB in the NFC) I think he had a great year but I think he is a strech)

[HOGWILD21]

I think that changes need to be made.Hey I love my Redskins but to vote 11 of them in after the season we are having....eeeesssshhhhhh!I have been voting for the last 5 years and have never been one to Vote in someone who don't deserve it.
  The only Redskins that I voted for this year is obviously Clinton.He has been the work horse we all expected him to be.I agree with my bro that he will be joined by Turner and AP.Mike Sellers I had to vote for.Hell of a blocker and always comes up with big runs when we needed them.
 On the defensive side I voted for Horton.This kid has made some big plays at crucial moments.In my opinion he sealed the deal against the Cowboys.My last one went to London.He has done awesome for us on the defensive side also.He hardly misses any assignment.Would be kind of hard to leave him off.

[NCSKINSFAN]

Great post Mike! The game should be respected and IMO the Redskins went too far with the Vote the Redskins ticket this year. The best players should play, not the most popular. This isn’t high school.

There are still 3 games left which IMO still should count before any voting is closed. But since the fan portion of the voting is just a popularity contest anyway I guess stats and performance do not count much.

That being said I am still glad that fans have a say in the players that get to go. It’s the fans game.

As far as Redskins players go I would love to see several of them make it but the most deserving this season IMO would be

Portis (Currently 3rd in rushing in the NFC)
Cooley (Currently 1st ranked TE in NFC)
Fletcher (Currently 2nd ranked LB in NFC)
Albright (He went last year so why not again. How you judge long snappers I’m not sure? I think it is crazy to have a lineman who only does one thing like long snap. That’s why we got caught last game with only one O-Lineman on the bench after both tackles got injured.

As much as I would love for Chris Horton to make it he just does not have the stats to back it up.
There are 9 other safeties in the NFC who have more tackles than Horton. There are four who have more interceptions. There are 19 that have more solo tackles than Horton. So that being said he would not deserve to go.

Another guy I thought of is Rock Cartwright. He is 5th in return avg in the NFC with players with at least 30 or more returns. With 3 games left he could move up but he would not catch the top guys. He has almost broke several runs for TD’s this year. 

So we should have at least 4 Redskins in the PB this year. That’s the most we’ve had in a long time.

[Mike Bass]

I agree, if the process gets messed up as it was this year, again next year the committee will probably take the fan voting away which would be a shame because as Sean said, the game is for the fans .

I also agree with LDY, voting as we did really makes it look like we are not aware of what is going on in the rest of the NFL and have no knowledge of football or at least the players even though we may have.

Horton, although I think that he will make all the rookie teams available and will probably win defensive rookie of the year, I don't think will make the pro bowl and we should not have beef about it because although he had a very good year, there were safeties who had better.

Okay about Dallas and the 13 Pro Bowl players last year....

These players were voted in by the fans (I do not think that the Dallas fan vote had all 13 as top vote getters) , their peers (who came face-to-face on the field with these players), and the coaches ( who coached AGAINST these players)....

They had 8 voted in as starters (Top vote getters) ...here are the eight (which ones could we argue against?)

Terrell Owens
Jason Witten
Flozell Adams
Leonard Davis
Andre Gurode
DeMarcus Ware
Ken Hamlin (Sean Taylor was actually voted in as the starter Hamlin was the reserve)
Nick Folk ( He may be one that we can argue against but he was the second leading scorer from a kicker and had a better percentage than the #1 guy (Mason Crosby of the Packers))

and five reserves...

Tony Romo
Marion Barber (I had a problem with this one because he didn't even start on his own team and I think that there was more deserving RB's with CP being one of them)
Greg Ellis
Terence Newman
Roy Williams ( I think that this is who most of our fans has a problem with but he was not voted in  initially, he was a replacement for Sean Taylor)

Out of the 13 there's only maybe one or two players who were questionable. 

[Simone]

I voted for everyone...That does not mean I don't know anything about the NFL or other players...after what I saw what happen with the cowboys. Here are the ones that were not deserving last year

Fozell Adams gets beaten way to much and to many penalties
Marion Barbar (great back but CP should have been the one)
Terrence Newman (joke)
Hamlin (joke)
Roy Williams don't even let me start.
Nick Folk (lol) yeah because he won the Buffalo game?

[Mike Bass]

I voted for everyone...That does not mean I don't know anything about the NFL or other players...after what I saw what happen with the cowboys. Here are the ones that were not deserving last year

Fozell Adams gets beaten way to much and to many penalties
Marion Barbar (great back but CP should have been the one)
Terrence Newman (joke)
Hamlin (joke)
Roy Williams don't even let me start.
Nick Folk (lol) yeah because he won the Buffalo game?

Alright let's give you that, I respect anyones opinion but even given this and even though we are  biased against Dallas, we still give them, AT LEAST 7 admitted Pro Bowlers last season, so in all actualities without the bias it would be something like 9 from fans who hate the Cowboys.

-Hamlins's 20 passes deflected was probably more of the reason than his 5 interceptions last season along with his reputation around the league from his years at Seattle, continued to Dallas as being one of the best free safties in football, that he made the Pro Bowl. I do not think that we would've mined if he made it as a Seahawks player

-Flozell Adams is a perenial pro bowler so people around the league are seeing something almost every year that he is doing right. Heck he did not ONLY make the Pro Bowl, he was an second team  All-Pro which meant that he was not only considered Pro Bowl caliber but was considered one of the top 4 tackles in all of football last season....so he should have been left off the PRO BOWL roster?

-Nick Folk was like the 2nd leading scorer in the NFC so I can't say that it was one game that got him voted in...he also hit 26 out of 31 field goals that he attempted and 3 out of his 5 misses came from over 50 yards so it was probably his consistency that got him voted in.

-Terence Newman did not have the numbers but some of the best corners i.e. Darrell Green did not have the numbers because of their cover skills and teams going away from them (before anyone says it, NO he is no DG, nowhere near but coaches do plan against throwing at good cover guys)

I do not like Dallas but these individual players did not choose Dallas, Dallas chose them and the fact still remains that they played Pro Bowl football in the eyes of their peers and oposing coaches last season where as some of the  guys who we voted for did not even play Pro Bowl football in even our own eyes. I do not think that retaliation by our fans by voting any and every Redskin in because of the respect that the Dallas guys received from the players and coaches around the league would be the right way to handle the situation if that was our only motivation.

I am sure that some of our own players voted the majority of these guys in.

Disrespecting the process hurts everything and everyone involved in some kind of way.

[ldysknzfn]

If this had been Dallas fans doing this...I would have said.."that figures they're clueless about their own team". I was surprised so many Skins fans participated to that extent.
I didn't mean any disrespect to any Skins fans on this site or any other that chose to participate in this campaign.  But I have my opinion, just as everyone has theirs.  I wasn't speaking directly about anyone, but generally.

  I don't knock anyone for doing it, afterall the Skins shamelessly promoted it so what did they expect?  I don't think the Dallas 13 were voted in by their fanbase..which is different than what skins fans have done.  I don't blame anyone for supporting the team in this way..believe me...I did it for Cheif Z and had fun doing it...I'm not a big PB fan to start with so I put in my 1 vote for the Skins players that I thought deserved to go. I understand the loyalty that was displayed by voting for players who don't deserve to go..I just couldn't bring myself to do it. 

I salute those of you that put in the time to do that.

The process needs a major overhaul imo.  This is a fan's game and I hope the fans can continue to be a part of the process.  I hope the Skins don't promote it like this next year.  I blame them for that.

[Mike Bass]

A process overhaul may be what's needed but I would hate to think that our fans is what caused it...it was definitely not one person and I do think that it was out of assumed loyalty for those who voted for every Redskin but sometimes we all have to do as Skins12th has, admittedly and VERY respectfully done and take a step back and realize that every move that we make may not be the right move.

What's done is done though and the Pro Bowl is always going to be here for the fans who'd like to see it and would like to see it played with the best of the best no matter the team that they are representing.

I would hate to see anything mandated anywhere near like Major League Baseball's mandate of the leagues winner of the All-Star game having homefield advantage in the World Series games so that the All-Star game would be more competitive because this takes it out of the hands of  team's performance. I do not think that anything as severe as this would happen in the NFL BUT this is the type of stuff that misuse and abuse of what we are priveledged to have leads to.

[LuvDaSkins]

I voted several times for the players that I think deserve it...I agee the way the Redskins promoted it played a role in the number of votes...The players I voted for...

Clinton Portis

London Flether

Carlos Rogers

Ethan Albright

Chris Cooley