FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- It's raining on Day 1 of Super Bowl week. So if one has to hang out in one's hotel until the players arrive later on, then one might as welltake one last look back at the Pro Bowl, otherwise known as Bryant's Not So Excellent Adventure.
I hadn't watched a Pro Bowl in decades until lastnight. In fact,I think the last one I saw might have also hada Clay Matthewsin the game.
My decision to overlook the Pro Bowl all those years was reaffirm as a wise move while watching that game last night. A game played at half speed along the line of scrimmage was made even worse by the fact it was watereddownwith a record 34replacement players.
NFLCommissioner Roger Goodell crowned it a success.
"I think we're getting more and more attention for the game,"he said. "It's a great leadupinto theSuper Bowl, so it'saccomplished a lot of things we talked about."
I don't know about you, but drawing more attention to this game might be abad thing. Once you get ataste of this, do you really want another bite?
TheNFL says the game created a "buzz" because it was moved from Hawaii to the Super Bowl site a week before the big game. A crowd of 70,697 was announced. There were someno-shows, but it was still a good-sizedcrowd.
The NFL declared it the second-largestcrowd in Pro Bowl history and thelargestin 51 years. Of course, the game had been playedat 50,000-seat Aloha Stadium the past 30 years.