When I learned that this year’s NFL Pro-Bowl was being hosted BEFORE the Super Bowl, I was skeptical.

First, what NFL minded fan would watch the Pro-Bowl in the week hiatus between the NFC/AFC Championships, and the Super Bowl.

I wondered how the Sports Talking Heads would pull this off.

If you didn’t watch this, don’t feel bad, I didn’t either. I did watch the highlights and it looked like a Flag football game, as usual.

But, what stuck out to me, and this bothered me, NONE of the players participating in the Super Bowl were allowed to participate in the Pro-Bowl.
(Granted, this allowed underrated quarterbacks, like Donovan McNabb to participate.) But still. THIS is the Pro Bowl? No Drew Brees? No Peyton Manning? Seriously? That seems like a let down?

For those of you who came in late (or don’t actively follow the processes of the National Football League) the Pro-Bowl is a collection of top “top” NFL players in each position who play an All-Star-Game, historically hosted in Honolulu Hawaii, a week after the Super Bowl and thus marking the end of the NFL season.

This year, for the first time, the Pro-Bowl was hosted during the Week Off between the Conference Championships and the Super Bowl. The Analyst in me suspects this was an attempt to get more people to watch the game on TV (and attend the game in the Stadium; as it was hosted in the same stadium as the Super Bowl) to generate more dollars.

I’ll be curious if this actually worked.

Even though some Prominent Eagles appear perennially in the Pro-Bowl, I do not make an effort to watch. This year was no different.
I was amused that in the 2nd Quarter though, a pass was thrown from Donovan McNabb to DeSean Jackson, who ran it over 50 years for an easy Touchdown, with an Extra point scored by David Akers. I thought it was an Eagles game. (*proud moment*)

And at the same time, McNabb threw an interception to the infamous Brian Dawkins. I wanted to cry and cheer at the same time.

Wolverine… why do you have to wear the wrong colors? *sobs*
Still, your #20 will probably be retired in Philadelphia.

Anyways. What does the Jeremy-Gilby-dot-com readership think of this NFL/Broadcasting experiment? Was the Pro-Bowl worth being hosted two weeks earlier?

Part of me, the analyst part, thought, this was the Network’s attempt to get more viewership around the Pro