Jackson Free Press

Even as it continues to grow as a ratings giant and America's most-watched sporting league, the NFL still isn't afraid to tinker around with its product. Last week, the National Football League decided to make changes to its all-star game, the Pro Bowl.

No other sport can draw numbers like the NFL does with its all-star game. The Pro Bowl out-draws the NBA All-Star Game, NHL All-Star Game and Major League Baseball's All-Star game.

But even as last season's Pro Bowl dominated the ratings, it was down 8 percent from the 2012 Pro Bowl, and the 2012 Pro Bowl ratings were down from the previous year.

Still, even with the ratings declining for the 2013 Pro Bowl, it beat the Cotton Bowl, Pacers-Heat Game 7, every NBA playoff game before the finals, every Stanley Cup game, every MLB game so far in 2013, every soccer and tennis match, and every golf tournament except for the final round of The Masters.

The Pro Bowl is currently ranked as the 29th most-watched sporting event in 2013. To encourage even higher ratings, the NFL decided last week to make changes to the Pro Bowl format.

Gone is the old format—which has been used since 1971—of the National Football Conference versus the American Football Conference. Now, the top two vote getters in a fan Pro Bowl contest will become captains for picking the two Pro Bowl squads. Joining them will be two fantasy-league champions and Hall of Famers Jerry Rice and Deion Sanders, who will help the captains pick their teams.

I like this idea, because it will make fantasy team owners try even harder next season for a chance to be a part of picking teams and hobnobbing with Rice and Sanders. (It still won't make talking about your fantasy team any more interesting, though.)

To earn your spot as fantasy captain, you have to win one of the following: Lenovo's Fantasy Coach of the Year program or by playing at NFL.com/fantasy. Good luck winning now that an extra million people will be signing up.

The NFL will even televise the Pro Bowl Draft on the NFL Network one Wednesday night in late January.

One change that players should like: Kickoffs will no longer be part of the game. The league has eliminated the return specialist from the Pro Bowl roster.

I would have kept the position, because those players should be singled out for the job they do, and a big return can change a game like few plays can in football. And after all, most teams don't use a fullback anymore, but the league still lets fans vote for a fullback.

Return specialists are normally a wide receiver or running back, so players could get on the field at that position. The NFL is adding an extra defensive back because it is getting rid of the return specialist. I like this idea, because the league is more dependent on passing as ever.

I would have kept the return specialist and added the extra defensive back. I would have gone a step further, though, and added extra tackles and defensive ends. Those are players who matter more now, because the league has become so infused with passing attacks.