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LAS VEGAS — Absurd. Silly. Fun. That’s the best way to describe the inaugural Pro Bowl Games that the NFL put together this year in lieu of an actual game.
The week started with the most coordinated athletes in the world tossing water balloons to each other and playing dodgeball and ended with a series of flag football games where not a lick of defense was played until the final game in the three-game series.Welcome to the new Pro Bowl. The facemasks have been exchanged for sunglasses and T-shirts replaced the jerseys. Embrace it, shun it. It’s here to stay.
There has been a certain charm watching the players be the most relaxed, childlike versions of themselves. There were players who preferred to play in an actual game with helmets and shoulder pads, but everyone was having a good time competing with lowered stakes and most important, lowered injury risks — well, outside of Jalen Ramsey decking Tyreek Hill as Hill crossed the goal line for a touchdown.
Ramsey wasn’t the only player to struggle with the flag football rules. Geno Smith ran for a touchdown which didn’t count because the quarterback can’t run with no blitzers in his face.
As one might imagine, there was a whole lot of scoring in the flag football games with the NFC beating the AFC by a score of 35-33. The field spanned only 25 yards in each direction, making the entire field 50 yards for the guys to play on. Ravens quarterback Tyler Huntley kicked off the scoring for the day with a touchdown pass to his teammate Mark Andrews while Smith and Justin Jefferson showed some unusual chemistry for guys who haven’t played much together.
The NFL deserves some credit for trying something completely different and coming up with a watchable product at the end of the day. Not every activity was a hit (glaring at you, catching contest), but the league was able to manifest a level of engagement that the previous iterations of the Pro Bowls failed to capture. That’s really what is important about the Pro Bowl. Even with the opt-outs and replacement players, it’s fun to watch these world-class athletes give effort at any athletic task.
There are things that need to be cleaned up as far as structuring the week, but the first version of the Pro Bowl Games certainly wasn’t a failure for the NFL. In a game as serious and intense as football, it’s good to kick back and realize that sometimes a game really is just a game.
Daniel Weinman was crowned winner of the 2023 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event on Monday, taking home a record breaking $12.1 million in winnings. Weinman had to outlast the other 10,043 entrants to take home the prize and get his hands on his share of live poker’s largest ever prize pool – a staggering $93,399,900. As well as taking home the prize money, 35-year-old Weinman also got his hands on the WSOP Main Event bracelet. The huge bracelet contains 500 grams of 10-karat yellow gold, as well as 2,352 various precious gemstones.
Daniel Weinman won the World Series of Poker's main event world championship on Monday in Las Vegas, earning $12.1 million along the way. Playing in the tournament for a 16th year, Weinman was tops in a deep pool of 10,043 players vying for $93.39 million. His victory came after just 164 hands at the final table. "I was honestly on the fence about even coming back and playing this tournament," the 35-year-old Atlanta native told reporters afterward. Weinman's final table featured Jan-Peter Jachtmann, who landed in fourth place and took home $3 million, as well as Toby Lewis, who finished seventh and secured $1.42 million. According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the main event's entry pool far outpaced the previous record of 8,773 set in 2006. "I've always kind of felt that poker was kind of going in a dying direction, but to see the numbers at the World Series this year has been incredible," Weinman said. "And to win this main event, it doesn't feel real. I mean, [there's] so much luck in a poker tournament. I thought I played very well." Steven Jones finished second, securing $6.5 million. And Adam Walton settled for third and a $4 million prize.
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