Saturdays are for Pro Bowling

Friday, I wrote a column on how useless the Pro Bowl is, and what it can do to teams by injurying key players. So, what happened? Drew Brees (who went 2 for 7 early in the first quarter) dislocated his elbow. Which one, as you frightenly ask? Good news, his nonthrowing elbow. And in other good news, he won't need surgey. See what I mean when I was talking about this, Friday? The Pro Bowl is one tough event, and it is tackle football, by the way. It's not some easy event, where you go out and play two hand touch in your Uncle Sean Glennon's backyard.

Let Brian Moorman of the Buffalo Bills tell you that, as the AFC ran a fake punt in the third quarter of the game yesterday, as he was running down the right side of the field near the sidelines trying to set up a scheme of blocks, when Sean Taylor broke the unwritten rule about hard hits in an exhibition, as Taylor popped Moorman. After the hit, Moorman laid on the ground like he was knocked out for a couple of seconds, then hopped right back up, and congratulated Taylor on the hit, righteously so (Too bad Taylor is too scared to do it to Steven "Action" Jackson, though.) "Believe it or not, it wasn't as bad as it looked," Moorman said. "It was just hard. It took me a second to realize that it didn't hurt so bad, so I got right back up." Yeah, right, Brian. Wait, I'm not doubting you; please, switch positions to offensive line, and come to St. Louis to play for my Rams. Please.

Speaking of the Rams, how did my boys from St. Louis do? Well Marc Bulger played pretty well, going 8/15, 133 yards, except he made a costly mistake when he fumbled on a confusing play, as Baltimore's Adalius Thomas scooped it up like an ice cream cone and ran it back 70 yards for the score. However, Steven "Action" Jackson made up for the Rams' Pro Bowl deal by getting tossed a pitch on 4th and 3 to the left side, he had no room so he ran backwards. I sat there with The Sports Gal thinking, "Yeah, he's going to score. Anyone in the world who has watched the Rams this season knows this beast is going to score." As he ran across the field, he bursted right into a seen carrying at least 3 AFC defenders with him for the touchdown.

It was funny, in my opinion. No one ever really credits the Rams, and how great our offense is (disintellect our offensive line.) One of the commentators made a comment on how you could make an easy case on how Bulger could be the third best quarterback in the league behind Peyton Manning and Tom Brady, on how he flies under the radar so much, never getting any attention. However, when Jackson made that touchdown, it was priceless! How so? The commentary said "None of these guys remember who the Rams are, and they're smashmouth now so they are going to remember this for a month or so. They haven't really gotten to face a Steven Jackson this year, except Sean Taylor, and we know how that turned out (Jackson blew right by him on a 65 yard passing TD, and had the winning touchdown run against the Skins earlier this year running right past Taylor.) If you're the AFC, you think 'WHOA!'"

So, it was Tiki Barber's last official NFL game (however, he still hasn't signed the papers.) He was the first player to score a touchdown in his final NFL game being in the Pro Bowl since Jim Brown in 1966 (41 bleepin years ago.) I don't really know what to say of this matter, but truthfully I think Tiki is scared. Scared of what, you ask? I think he's scared that his pride and dignity will be washed up if he continues to play for more significant seasons due to, as players get older, of course their stats deteriorate, and I don't think he wants that. I think what he wants, is fans to remember what they last seen, that "monster who carried the Giants into the playoffs in the 2006-2007 NFL season!" instead of just trying to do what he always wanted to do in life, because that's why he has the 40's to help him accomplish that. In the 30's, players should make the most of the upcoming end of their career, not retire at the age of 30! (turning 31 on April 7th.) That's a mistake that Barry Sanders made.

Whether it was about Marc Bulger and Tony Romo talking about drinking martini's, or about Steven Jackson and Steve Smith talking about "the power of Steve's" on the sidelines, it was a decent Pro Bowl if you count out the Drew Brees injury. What made it decent was the last game of Tiki Barber, and how we'll remember him. As well as Will Shields; who hads had a trip to the Pro Bowl for a record-tying 12 times in his career is contemplating retirement. So what does that mean for Larry Johnson? Lets see, without the total of all "three" of those guys (Willie Roaf, Tony Richardson (Free Agency), and now Will Shields (thinking about it)), he's going to have to be more like Steven Jackson, and just start carrying defenders more on his back, instead of like most backs searching for the holes. So, does this move Stevie J. up to the second best back in the league yet? I would seem to think so.