Tweet
| Tuck's Takes: NFL Pro Bowl voting among players should be consistent |
Most of the discussion on the process seems to focus on the fans having the ability to stuff the ballot box. That does not overly concern me, though I do think giving the fans one-third of the say might be too much say. And I don't really care if one team's fans, like the Redskins, overwhelm the fan vote. More power to them. If you've got a problem with that, rock the vote or mobilize your fanbase to do the same.
I am much more intrigued by the rest of the vote, primarily the vote of one's peers which made getting selected to the Pro Bowl such an honor in the first place. There are some significant holes in the way in which players vote for the Pro Bowl that have to be rectified immediately in the interest of continuity and fairness. I have gone through the process a number of times on a number of teams and know that seemingly every organization does it its own way, some of which are better than others.
First and foremost, we need uniformity among teams so the process is the same throughout the league. One team I was on simply had every player go into their own position room and fill out a ballot and turn it in like a fan voting online, with no discussion whatsoever. Some guys filled it out in less than five minutes. Not good.
There is no way that I, as an offensive lineman, would know how well the corners or safeties around the league are truly playing. And do you honestly think the wide receivers really know what defensive tackle is doing the best job stopping the run? Please. All they know is what they hear on the scouting report, if they were even listening during that portion, or from the media hype machine that carries certain players to Hawaii every year.
Players should primarily and often do only vote for the position groups they compete against or among. That means offensive linemen should vote for other offensive linemen, defensive linemen and linebackers. This varies from team to team. Then their votes are reconciled with the other position groups on the team to form one unanimous vote, for all intents and purposes, among the 53 guys on a team.
That only works, or course, when the position groups decide to vote in unison, which is fairly common but can often cause heated discussions and some players may be forced to vote for players they do not deem worthy of the selection. That is where the politics can come into play. There is a long-held belief among a large segment of players that there is a mild form of collusion among the perennial Pro Bowlers to ensure they all make their way back to Hawaii yet again.
Since Pro Bowlers are almost always the leaders of their position group if not their team, they tend to have a tremendous amount of influence during the voting process and thus the ability to push the room, as the case may be, in a certain direction. That might be part of the reason why a veteran stalwart that is having a subpar season, like Charles Woodson, gets selected.
Though I never really bought into the collusion theory it did seem to me like forcing a group consensus unfairly diminished each individual voter's ballot. For example, though I think Justin Tuck, Julius Peppers and Jared Allen are all three-down players and very deserving, there is no way I could have left John Abraham off the ballot with what he has been able to accomplish this season for the Falcons while being their only legitimate pass rusher. Yet if I was on a team and we decided collectively to go with the other three, my vote would no longer matter.
The best way to do it is to allow each player to vote the way he wants to individually while allowing him to converse with other teammates at other position groups that he trusts for their objectivity before making selections at positions he does not watch as much on film, lest reputation trump performance. That is the way it often goes with kickers and punters. Though some teams just vote for whichever punter has the best average, only the punters and special teams' coaches really know who is having the best year when net average, weather, and punts downed inside the 20 are taken into account.
...
Comment