Gerald McCoy saw the Pro Bowl honor get cheaper in real time. The former Buccaneers All-Pro is glad the league is finally fixing it as part of its seismic Pro Bowl overhaul.
The NFL eliminated the Pro Bowl game as a yearly event, but kept the selection process. The larger change: alternates are gone. McCoy, per Pro Football Network, backed the move without qualification.
“Being a Pro Bowler became watered down,” McCoy said.
He's right. For years, alternates filled out the roster as stars withdrew. That turned a season-long achievement into a participation award. A player could make the Pro Bowl without being among the top vote-getters at his position. The label stuck anyway.
The league's overhaul goes beyond the game itself. The event is done, but voted selections remain an honor. Players, coaches and fans each get one-third of the ballot. That process stays intact. What disappears is the safety net of constant replacement picks. No game means no need to round out two full rosters.
McCoy has standing here. He was an All-Pro defensive tackle in Tampa Bay, an honor earned during his tenure there. He knows what the original recognition meant. And he watched it degrade.
The move doesn't solve everything. The Pro Bowl selection still relies on reputation and name recognition. Fan votes tend to lag reality. But killing alternates removes the most obvious flaw: the honor was being applied retroactively to players who didn't earn it on the field.
This is the right call, and overdue. The NFL kept the useful part and cut the part that made the award meaningless. If the Pro Bowl means something again, that starts with no more alternates.