Pro Bowl Thoughts

Well, there's the obvious reaction. "B-b-but, we have the NUMBER ONE DEFENSE! Only three guys?!?!?! We're 11-3! We faced a schedule so tough that Job would say, 'Ah, ya know what. It's too hard.' How can we only have three guys?"

Seriously, though, with Faneca and his automatic vote-in playing for the Jets, with Marvel Smith missing so many games, we couldn't send any offensive linemen. Our receivers don't catch enough passes and, unless they're handing out trips to Hawaii for each broken jaw doled out, Hines Ward isn't making it ever again. Too many quality tight ends in the AFC for Heath to make it.

On defense, 3-4 ends just don't go to the Pro Bowl unless Bill Cowher is coaching it. Ryan Clark has meant a lot to this defense and they wouldn't be nearly as effective without him, but Pro Bowls are granted based on interceptions.

Harrison and Farrior are already in and you can't vote in Foote or Timmons, much as I might love them.

Deshea Townsend and Bryant McFadden have alternated at cornerback, so neither of them are eligible. Ball Bitch Ike Taylor? Cornerbacks get voted in on interceptions and interceptions returned for touchdowns. Ike just doesn't have the hands. He's the personification of the cliche that says you take the best athletes that can't catch and put them on defense.

I'm of the opinion that, if Terrell Suggs is a Pro Bowl player, then LaMarr Woodley should really be a Pro Bowl player. But, in all reality, there are a number of outside linebackers that deserve to go over Woodley and Suggs, and Woodley's almost a defensive end. Since the Pro Bowl defense is going to be a 4-3 defense, there really shouldn't be three 3-4 outside linebackers in there anyway.

The only real slight is picking Brett Favre over Ben Roethlisberger. Favre has thrown 17 interceptions, the Jets have won in spite of him as opposed to because of him, and he's there more because of his mystique and the fact that he plays in a big market than the fact that he really deserves it.

And, if not Roethlisberger, why not Philip Rivers? I mean, if it's an all-star game, why not get all the statistical juggernauts you can? The Chargers are 6-8, but Rivers has averaged 8.2 yards per attempt and is tied for the league lead with 28 touchdown passes. If you're going for guys that bring a lot of intangibles, you need to vote Roethlisberger in. No one has been more clutch thus far this season.

People make fun of video games, but I think that Madden Football had it right. When you vote in players, you base it this way:

The quarterbacks with the top three ratings are in.

The top three running backs in terms of yardage are in.

The top four receivers in terms of yardage are in.

The linemen and linebackers with the most sacks are in.

The cornerbacks with the most interceptions are in.

The safeties with the most tackles are in.

If you do it that way, there's debate like there's debate on the BCS, that stats and a computer determine the fates of players. But, really, you'd have a hell of a team if you gauged it that way.

There will be debate regardless, the current system is the standard system and the Madden system is the metric system. At least the Madden system is standardized.