The Pro Bowl changed this year, and Detroit Lions center Frank Ragnow really liked the new format.
The Pro Bowl changed its format this year, with flag football games and a set of skill competitions that allowed players to have some fun and show a little personality we rarely, if ever, see. Center Frank Ragnow was one of four Detroit Lions Pro Bowlers this year, as the team’s only original selection and it was the second Pro Bowl appearance of his career.
The format was a welcome change for the players, if only from an injury risk perspective. Ragnow nursed a foot injury all season, so it’s fair to assume the past attempt at playing a football game would have led to him bowing out of the Pro Bowl.
It’s fair to say the NFL has some work to do to tweak the Pro Bowl Games format moving forward, with modification to the events from this year and perhaps some new events to replace some others. In a broad sense, the events could use an injection of genuine excitement for fans watching on television.
Lions center Frank Ragnow really liked the new Pro Bowl format
Ragnow talked to Lions team reporter Dannie Rogers in Las Vegas. Via Lions Wire, it’s safe to say he really liked the new Pro Bowl format.
"I think it’s cool,” Ragnow said of the new format. “It definitely gets the players more excited and less stressed about actually having to work and — not compete because we compete at a high level here in a unique way that we don’t usually get to do. It’s cool.”"
Ragnow’s sentiment is definitely shared by the majority, if not all, of this year’s Pro Bowl participants. His own lingering injury situation is surely intertwined in his words, as the new format practically eliminated making his injury any worse.