McNabb is headed to the Pro Bowl -- Prayers answered?


Eagles' quarterback Donovan McNabb and strong safety Quintin Mikell have been added to the NFC's Pro Bowl roster. And really, that's about the extent of the news. The Birds now have nine players in the Pro Bowl, but at this point it doesn't mean a whole lot.

The Pro Bowl has become the biggest joke that the NFL puts together, outside of the annual game in London, England. Playing it a week before the Super Bowl seems to make sense on the surface, but if you dig (at all), you begin to unearth all of the problems presented with the move.

First of all, the two teams in the Super Bowl will obviously not be represented in the game because the players selected from those teams will be focusing on something a bit more important. Then there are the players who are too dinged up to play, and the guys who just have no interest in playing in an exhibition game.

And this is even not taking into account the awful decision to move the Pro Bowl from Hawaii.

A big reason that a lot of the superstars even agreed to play in the game was because they enjoyed the free trip out to Hawaii. They brought out their family and were able to goof around in Hawaii for a week before playing in a game that consisted of the best players the world had to offer.

Now with the game in Miami, you have at least six teams incredibly uninterested by the proposition of playing in Miami.

The Dolphins, of course, play there eight times per season. The game is being played at their home stadium, so they're especially uninterested. Then you have the Buffalo Bills, New England Patriots, and New York Jets who play there at least once per season and may have a "been there, done that" type of attitude.

Then you have the two other Florida teams, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Jacksonville Jaguars, who certainly won't see a week in Miami as much of a vacation.

So again I ask, what exactly is the point of moving the game from Hawaii?

The NFL will put together the annual disaster of the game in London in an effort to expose the people of England and all of Europe to American Football, but in the same year will alienate actual Americans in Hawaii by removing the one game per year that they've had an opportunity to see up close and personal.

But to answer the question, there is no point in moving the game from Hawaii. It was all about money, as is the case in most of the decisions made by the NFL. The people running Aloha Stadium (where the Pro Bowl was played prior to this season) wanted more money, and the NFL was unwilling to pay up.

Both sides thought the other would fold, but it didn't happen. Now the people of Hawaii are out an NFL game and the players and fans are forced to watch a game of lower quality than even in prior seasons.

Good move, NFL. I look forward to watching David Garrard and his 15 touchdowns lead the AFC squad to victory over an NFC squad void of any Saints or Vikings players.