The NFL on Monday quickly shot down multiple media reports that the Pro Bowl is guaranteed to Hawaii for the next three years.
Fact is, an NFL spokesman told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, nothing has yet been decided beyond the 2016 game, which will be held at Aloha Stadium.
Maybe it was just a chorus of wishing out loud on the part of the players who participated in Sunday’s game in Glendale, Ariz. And, apparently, there was a lot of that going on.
"I think everybody prefers Hawaii," Saints quarterback Drew Brees told Azcentral.com. "There’s something to be said about tradition. … Part of the reward is you get a trip to Hawaii. It’s about your family, too."
Hall of Famer Cris Carter, one of the game’s captains, said, "This (playing the game in Arizona) is a tryout, but there’s nothing like Hawaii. I think eventually it will get back to Hawaii. This was very, very nice, the people in Arizona, the hospitality. … But guys dream of going to Hawaii after the Super Bowl."
Playing the game in University of Phoenix Stadium, home of the Cardinals, marked the second time the NFL has experimented with packaging the Pro Bowl in tandem with the site of the Super Bowl since the annual all-star game first came to Hawaii in 1980. In the first instance, 2010, the league doubled up in South Florida and then returned to Hawaii for four consecutive years.
This year’s Pro Bowl landed in the Valley of the Sun at the urging of Cardinals owner Michael Bidwell, who sought to take a page out of the Hawaii Tourism Authority’s playbook.
For all the people in the stands (announced crowd Sunday: 63,225, compared to 47,270 in 2014), TV viewers in January, like the players apparently, much prefer beach shots and rainbows to desert vistas and cactus.
Either that or the interest in choosing up sides and playing without Super Bowl players has waned even more sharply, because overnight TV ratings were down 16 percent from 2014, according to Sports Media Watch. If the overnights, which comprise a snapshot of 56 of 210 leading media markets, hold up, the Pro Bowl could lose its proudly held distinction these past five years as being the most-watched all-star game in pro sports.
NFL vice president Brian McCarthy said a choice of sites for 2017 and beyond likely won’t be made until later this year or early 2016.
So, NFL owners — once they get past deflated footballs and other pressing issues — have some decisions to make about the game on several fronts.
If our shores were the vocal preference over Arizona, imagine the landslide when the upcoming choices are Honolulu or Super Bowl cities Houston (2017) and Minneapolis (2018).
In the meantime, the HTA took the high road with a statement before Sunday’s contest in Arizona "extending aloha" to the game. But it also underlined its history noting, "The NFL Pro Bowl has called the Hawaiian Islands home for more than 30 years and we look forward to continuing our long-standing relationship next year with an opportunity to host the game again in 2017."
Almost as eagerly as the players, apparently.
Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.
