The NFL Pro Bowl is the worst of all the major professional sports All-Star games, because it’s impossible to create the kind of intensity needed for football to be well played and intriguing in an exhibition where the rules are set up to keep everyone healthy.
The NFL is well aware that the Pro Bowl is pretty bad, so the league regularly tries to spice it up. Last year they did a backyard football style draft instead of having the traditional AFC versus NFC game. This year, they brought back the skills competition, which used to be the most enjoyable part of the weekend.
Being that it’s 2017, the NFL decided to spice it up a bit with some modern touches. Most notably, was the “Drone Drop” competition where players stood at mid field and tried to catch footballs dropped by drones from increasingly high distances. While a good idea on paper, and probably in person, it didn’t exactly translate on TV.
This is a really tough competition, but it’s hard to really appreciate how high the ball is dropping from and how quick the reflexes have to be to react and make catches on TV, no matter how many wide shots or drone shots used. That said, it did produce a few cool catches as Odell Beckham Jr. came out with the win over Jarvis Landry, Chris Harris Jr. and Patrick Peterson.
Here are the three best catches from the competition:
3. Odell Beckham (85 feet)
2. Jarvis Landry (100 feet)
1. Odell Beckham (125 feet)
