The No-Bowl

The Super Bowl is set. Sunday, February 7. 6:00 pm. New Orleans Saints. Indianapolis Colts. Two great quarterbacks. While Peyton Manning and Drew Brees will have an epic battle on the first Sunday in February, the will not be playing in the 2010 Pro Bowl, which is on the last Sunday of January. Nor will any of their teammates who were selected to partake in the event because this year, the Pro Bowl is the week before the Super Bowl... This also means that, including injury replacements, over 25 players who were not originally voted onto the Pro Bowl roster will play in Miami on January 31. That is one of the reasons why I think it is not a good idea to have the Pro Bowl before the Super Bowl.

This Pro Bowl has had way too many additions, most importantly because of the timing of the game. All 14 players from the Colts and Saints that made the Pro Bowl rosters will sit the game out, which means 14 more players were added to the team. On Monday, 17 players were added. 17 players is almost the amount of players that are on the field at once! Not saying that those players didn't have good seasons, but fans want to see the players that were truly voted onto the team play. The most deserving player in my mind that wasn't named to the team was Jets running back Thomas Jones, who was 3rd in the league in rushing yards and rushing touchdowns. Jones wasn't added to the team because all of the running backs are healthy, but over 20 other players were. All of these players being added seems to make the Pro Bowl very unimportant, and it is already considered as one of the least popular All Star games in sports.

Just to give you a perspective of what has happened to the Pro Bowl, two Cowboys cornerbacks made the team. I don't want to take anything away from Terence Newman and Michael Jenkins, but to have two of the three cornerbacks be on the same team shows how out of hand these additions have gotten. Being voted to the Pro Bowl isn't even a huge honor anymore. None of the original AFC quarterbacks will be participating in the game at all. The three spots have been filled by Matt Shaub (who will start), Vince Young and David Garrard. To make matters worse, there won't even be a huge crowd cheering because only one Miami Dolphin will be playing (Yeremiah Bell, safety). Only three NFC positions on offense or defense didn't have anyone replaced (defensive end, tight end and fullback). I think you get the point.

While many people don't like watching the Pro Bowl, I have always found it interesting. It would be after the Super Bowl when everyone could just relax and have a great time, whether a player won the Super Bowl, lost it, or didn't even make the playoffs. Now that the game is before the Super Bowl, many players who probably liked having fun with the other great NFL players, such as Reggie Wayne and Darren Sharper, can only sit on the sideline and watch so they don't risk an injury. Hopefully next year the Pro Bowl will go back to being after the Super Bowl, they way I like it, as do many other true football fans.