Every year, the NFL holds one of the biggest popularity contests in all of sports: the Pro Bowl vote. Starting today and running through December 12, fans can cast their votes for their favorite players to be sent to the league’s all-star game, which takes place in the week leading up to the Super Bowl. Naturally, fans of the New England Patriots will a) vote for their team’s players, and b) hope that they will once again not play in the Pro Bowl.
As has been the case ever since the NFL moved the Pro Bowl to the weekend between the championship round and Super Bowl, teams participating in the title game will not send their players to the all-star game. Three years in a row, therefore, no Patriots players have been able to make the trip — despite a total of 10 nominations being earned through a voting process that includes an online ballot, and polling players and coaches.
The results of the vote and the Pro Bowl rosters will be announced on Tuesday, December 17 at 8:00 p.m. ET live on NFL Network. The game itself will then be played on January 26, 2019, 3:00 p.m. ET in Orlando — but safe to say that nobody wants to see players from his/her favorite team partake in what is a meaningless exhibition contest.
That being said, being nominated to the Pro Bowl can generally be seen as a good thing for the players not just because of prestige: a lot of them also have contract bonuses tied to the game in their respective deals.