Complaining About Pro Bowl Roster Snubs, an Act of Futility Since 1970

The Pro Bowl rosters were released yesterday, an event so exciting that the NFL made them public on a Tuesday afternoon, when the only news story that could rival it was Mark Teixeira getting really, really close to signing somewhere. For those not familiar with the Pro Bowl (welcome to America, sir), these “rosters” serve as a list of players who will be receiving some sort of Christmas bonus from their respective teams of varying worth based on the incentives spelled out within their contract. In exchange, the players must go to Hawaii after a grueling, painful season has concluded and risk injury in a meaningless game for the amusement of up to about 12 or 13,000 fans. It’s a give-take.↵↵Inevitably, players who may deserve a bonus for their hard work are left off the list every year. The bossmans can only give out bonuses to 80 of the NFL’s more than 1,600 players. For whatever reason, this causes fans (and writers), who do not care whatsoever about the actual Pro Bowl game itself, extreme anguish. The players centered around this outcry are more commonly referred to as “snubs.”↵

↵↵The snub that has created the most hearts to bleed this year is Philip Rivers, the quarterback of the most disappointing team in the NFL. There is a good case to be made for Rivers to earn a bonus over Brett Favre, who was voted onto the Pro Bowl roster. On one hand, Rivers has more passing yards and TDs than Favre, along with a higher QB rating and less interceptions. On the other hand, who in the hell cares? ↵

↵↵The only thing more annoying and pointless than complaining about Pro Bowl snubs is power rankings, and that’s only because power rankings happen every week. I have no idea why any fan would care whether or not a player makes the roster of a game that said fan won’t even watch. If anyone should complain about snubbery, it should be the player himself for being robbed of his contract bonus. T.O., I’m looking in your general direction. ↵

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