Matt Schaub got in to the Pro Bowl through the back door when the Colts’ Peyton Manning made it to the Super Bowl and forsook his right to participate in the showcase event, which was, for the first time in 30 years, held outside of Hawaii and played in front of a sell-out crowd of mainland Americans in Miami.
This year also marks the first time that the Pro Bowl has been staged the week before the Super Bowl. In order to protect the players who made the All Star rosters, but also have to prepare for the Big Game that is to be held next week in the same location, the NFL imposed a mandatory ban on all Super Bowl-bound players from taking part. It may seem a bit harsh on the guys who inspired the fans and experts to vote for them, but imagine the uproar should a key player in either Colts’ or Saints’ championship-primed teams went down hurt in a game that is little more than a consolation for the good guys whose teams couldn’t carry them as far as they deserved.
Every year the Pro bowl is a fantastic spectacle and, in many ways – despite the meaninglessness of the outcome – epitomises all that is right with football. Plays are extravagant; players are relaxed; the competitiveness is the natural, healthy sort that is lost when titles and money is on the line. Fans cheer together for the sport, not for the blood of their rivals who, in the case of the Pro Bowl, become teammates for the day – nothing beats seeing two guys in NFC blue, lining up next to each other, one in a Packers helmet, the other wearing a Vikings lid. It’s a time to come together and toast excellence.
It’s why I love sport. And art.
As I put in a rather drunken outburst directed at my mother just the other day:
“Without Sport or art, there is no appreciation of that which is not necessary…”
It is these things that make humans what they are. We as a species push the boundaries of what is possible like no other. Without these constant reaches into the unnecessary in the pursuit of quality for quality’s sake, we would lose our most defining asset. But maybe I’m getting away from the point of this article: to praise the players who performed on the second most colourful stage in the NFL.
Both Quarterbacks who saw most field time – Matt Schaub for the AFC and Aaron Rogers for the NFC – performed superbly and produced almost identical stats. They both threw for a touch under 200 yards; both tossed two scores; both avoided the costly interception. The only marked difference in their performances was that Schaub’s came for the winning side. Statistically, Rogers’ nose was a point or two in front of the Houston Texans’ Schaub, but ‘Magic Matt’ found a way to manage his team to victory and earned himself the Pro Bowl MVP honours in the process.
Last year, Larry Fitzgerald of the Arizona Cardinals was voted the MVP, capping a ludicrously productive postseason, during which he broke pretty much every receiving record going and went on to score twice in a thrilling fourth quarter of Super Bowl XLIII. Schaub has never even been to the postseason as a starting quarterback, but is the helmsman of an increasingly competitive Houston Texans side that has steadily improved over the past four seasons under the cagey guidance of Coach Kubiak. Kubiak has at his disposal a talented roster of young players and, if the powers that be give him more time, is probably the right man to turn the hapless franchise around. Kubiak was a member of three Denver Broncos teams to reach the Super Bowl in the eighties. They lost all three. As an assistant coach, though, he guided Steve Young to one of the best seasons ever when the Hall of Famer was Quarterbacking the 49ers to their blowout win over the Chargers in Super Bowl XXIX. He then went on to work for the Broncos, finally snaring their first Super Bowl and then a second a year later. During his time with Denver he coached fourteen players who made the Pro Bowl, including 1998 league MVP Terrell Davies (RB).
Leaving the Texans’ promising future aside, let’s take a brief look forward to next week’s game.
…What’s that..? …The Super Bowl..? …Go on then…
So, I’ll go into this in more depth tomorrow, but is anyone else excited about seeing two number one seeds clash in the final game of the season for the first time since 1993? That’s seventeen years, people! Seventeen years! It’s sure to be a classic. I’m hoping for the highest score ever.
It was good to see Drew Brees (Saints QB) and Peyton Manning (Colts QB) sharing a joke and critique on the sidelines of the Pro Bowl – to which they were both voted. These two gentlemen of the game will be embroiled in a titanic tussle for football immortality come Sunday.
I hope to the Gridiron Gods that the Saints pull-off the upset and take home the Lombardi trophy to New Orleans – a city in such desperate need of icons. Drew Brees, with his good looks and neighbourhood-guy personality, is the keystone for that team and their city. Nothing would beat the sight of him holding that platinum prism above his head as he and the Saints stroll victoriously down the main strip of NO, to the cheers of a city revived.
Go Saints!
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