NFL Looking To Make Pro Bowl Selection Reality TV Show

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell believes keeping up with the Kardashians may be the solution to reversing the Pro Bowl’s long march to irrelevance. I believe he is right.

It was reported in March by Ian Rapoport that the league was considering some changes, such as letting the AFC and NFC captains pick their teams. Now a source familiar with the league’s plans tells me the NFL has expanded the concept into making the roster selection process into an annual reality television show.

Why not? The NFL brought reality television to sports with Hard Knocks. The series put up decent ratings and more importantly expanded the NFL’s brand and demographics.

Come to think of it, why stop with the Pro Bowl? The NFL should turn the annual college draft into a reality television show too. Sports is increasingly becoming a bigger part of the entertainment industry. The difference between how actors, musicians and athletes are consumed is getting smaller. There will be little difference in how they are packaged and sold (thus, Jay-Z, an owner of the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets, recently created a sports agency and immediately signed Robinson Cano and Victor Cruz).

In a universe where celebrity is guzzled on television, online and with tweets, there is little difference between the Kardashians and the Mannings.

- Forbes