2014 NFL Pro Bowl: Team Rice tops Team Sanders

The pass may not have have capped a comeback for his Pro Bowl team -- a last-minute touchdown toss from Alex Smith gave Team Rice a 22-21 win -- but it did provide an exclamation point on a comeback season for Foles, who unexpectedly catapulted from backup to elite starter midway through his second year in the NFL. After injuries to Vick landed Foles at the top of the depth chart, he exploded onto the NFL scene, throwing for 2,891 yards, 27 touchdowns and just two picks over 10 games. His emergence was the driving force behind the Eagles’ second-half surge to reach the playoffs.

Foles was drafted by the Eagles in the third round of the 2012 draft and was tabbed as the quarterback of the future. Inconsistent play during his seven appearances as a rookie had some questioning that prognosis, and he entered 2013 behind Vick. After throwing for four touchdowns and 631 yards in the first two weeks, it appeared as though the veteran had cemented himself in the starting role.

Foles finished the game with seven completions on 10 attempts, throwing for 89 yards and a touchdown with no interceptions. Johnson was solid for Team Rice though, spearheading a game that was mostly dominated by strong defensive play (oddly enough). Johnson finished the game with nine solo tackles and a pass deflection.

This year’s game featured multiple changes in format. The biggest was the way the teams were selected. Before, it was simply AFC vs. NFC, but this time it was Team Rice -- led by Jerry Rice -- and Team Sanders -- led by Deion Sanders -- utilizing teams they drafted over the course of two days. There’s also changes to the game itself, like the third quarter being played in the same way as the end of the game, with a two-minute warning.

Okay, let’s talk about the strangest ending to a football game ever.

The Pro Bowl was Team Rice vs. Team Sanders, two teams made up literally days before the game. Somehow, somebody in Las Vegas decided that Team Rice should be favored by 1.5 points. Did anybody bet on the Pro Bowl? Who knows. If somebody did, I apologize to them so hard. They need help.

Team Rice trailed Team Sanders by a touchdown in the final minutes of the game, but started to drive down the field. Quarterback Alex Smith found his receivers multiple times, making his way into the red zone with under a minute to go. Eventually, he found DeMarco Murray on a dump-off that went for a 20-yard touchdown.

From there, they elected to go for it and Tolbert was able to punch it in for the lead. Sanders’ team was unable to get things done with just over 40 seconds on the clock.

Ah, the 2014 Pro Bowl. A chance for the stars of the NFL to kick back, relax, have some laughs and WATCH MEMBERS OF THE KANSAS CITY CHIEFS TRY TO MURDER EACH OTHER!

There’s really no accurate way to predict the winner of the Pro Bowl, but Vegas is giving it a shot, anyway. Bovada lists Drew Brees and Team Rice as slight 1½-point favorites over Andrew Luck and Team Sanders. The over/under sits at 91 points.

The rosters of the two All-Star teams were selected in a fantasy-style draft by NFL legends Jerry Rice and Deion Sanders. For the first time, players won’t be representing their respective conferences in the game.

The 2014 Pro Bowl will take place on Sunday, to the bemusement and indifference of many football fans. It almost didn’t happen this year, though. Commissioner Roger Goodell was “very serious” about canceling the All-Star game entirely, according to NFLPA President Dominique Foxworth (via USA Today’s Tom Pelissero).

The Pro Bowl has been a long-running joke in the football community. Foxworth said that Goodell considers it too expensive and not a good investment for the league, but the players still enjoy it and wanted to keep it going. The players consider it an honor to be invited to Hawaii and celebrated as the best in the league. There are also financial considerations in play, since many contracts have Pro Bowl appearance incentives built into them.

However, the biggest strength for Team Sanders may be a starting front seven that recorded 63 sacks, featuring J.J. Watt and Greg Hardy as the starting defensive ends.

Charles racked up 12 rushing touchdowns and seven touchdown receptions in his first season in Andy Reid’s system, earning team captain honors for the Pro Bowl. The First-Team All-Pro leads a running back group that has Lacy and Morris to boot. That might pale in comparison to Team Rice’s running back corps though, which features LeSean McCoy and DeMarco Murray.

The NFL released the new Pro Bowl jerseys back in October, but with the game not-so-suddenly upon us it’s about time we took a look again:

Nike designed these uniforms, which appear to look quite a bit like some of the college uniforms they’ve designed for Oregon (especially the NFC digs on the right). They’re certainly far removed from the old blue and red uniforms, and the NFL is trying to drum up interest in the old all-star game by giving it a facelift.

If nothing else, the NFL Pro Bowl Draft produced some interesting rosters.

The game may not count for anything, but that doesn’t mean it’s not worth taking a closer look at these rosters. Here’s a preview of Rice’s team.

At the very minimum, the format change will provide some unique matchups. Under the previous NFC vs. AFC format, NFL teammates were always on the same side. This year, you could see players from the same NFL team go head-to-head. Indianapolis’ Chuck Pagano and Carolina’s Ron Rivera will serve as the two head coaches.

The game itself will be broadcast on NBC with Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth providing the play-by-play and color commentary. Michele Tafoya will be the sideline reporter for the game. Television coverage is scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m. ET. There will be additional coverage online at NFL.com.

Facing decreasing interest in its annual all-star game, the NFL decided to shake things up for the 2014 Pro Bowl. In an attempt to infuse some energy into a game that has had the intensity of an over-40 rec league in recent seasons, a host of changes have been installed -- implementation of an unconferenced, fantasy-style draft being chief among them. The question is, is it enough to actually make the Pro Bowl interesting?

Exciting or not, the game -- which kicks off at 7:30 p.m. ET from Honolulu, Hawaii -- will at least be novel. Rather than simply being placed on an NFC or AFC squad, this year’s players were divvied up in an old-school pickup-game draft, with Pro Football Hall of Famers Deion Sanders and Jerry Rice serving as captains.

On Sunday, Jerry Rice and Deion Sanders will once again match up against each other as they did so many times throughout their Hall of Fame careers. Only this time, it’s as general managers.

Defensively, Pagano is hoping coordinator Greg Manusky can get the job done in a contest not known for its defensive prowess. Rounding out the staff is Tom McMahon, the special teams coordinator.

It is a feeling so contemporary and new that there isn’t quite a word for it yet, but citizens of the internet know it on sight. This is the sudden, sharp pang, not so much sympathetic as a reflexive wince, that comes with witnessing a botched moment of Attempted Virality.

For its basic uncanniness, it’s tempting to draw a parallel to spotting a dog walking on its hind legs, but YouTube has made that seem more or less normal and social media #strat substitutes flubby, cynical artificiality for the supremely endearing haplessness unique to dogs. Watching a #hashtag wipe out, or seeing a corporate Twitter account try to do people things, is both broadly funny -- because of the inevitable falling-down-the-stairs nope-ness of a corporate mascot making a Gangnam Style joke -- and kind of sad. The failure is the funny part; the attempt is the sad part. It’s hard to know where to fit the NFL’s attempt to social media-fy the Pro Bowl fits on this spectrum, but it’s clearly on the continuum.

In the Pro Bowl on Sunday, Deion Sanders and Jerry Rice will be squaring off as they did so many times throughout their careers, except this time as general managers.

Mike Shula will also being enjoying the Hawaii weather as the offensive coordinator. It shouldn’t be too tough for Shula to find a few playmakers to get his game plan going.

“I really think it’s going to be competitive, honestly, because we’re doing walk-throughs in practice, and the defensive line they’re going full speed,” Pouncey said. “They’re not even letting us block them in practice. Everyone’s excited, some guys are mad that they got drafted later than other guys, so I think this is going to be a real competitive game. I know one thing, I’m going to be going 110 percent because I’m going to be ready to play.”

Whether the Pro Bowl is actually watchable this year remains to be seen. You can determine the competitiveness for yourself Sunday at 7 p.m. ET on NBC. Check out the full rosters for Team Sanders and Team Rice.

With the annual AFC vs. NFC Pro Bowl seemingly losing more and more fan — and betting — interest each year, the NFL made big changes to the Pro Bowl this year in an effort to make it more interesting and fun.

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The Pro Bowl will kick off at Aloha Stadium in Hawaii this Sunday at 7 p.m. ET. The game will be televised on NBC.

You can check the entire Team Sanders roster below. Click here for Team Rice.

The Pro Bowl will kick off at Aloha Stadium in Hawaii this Sunday at 7 p.m. ET. The game will be televised on NBC.

You can check out the full Team Rice roster below. Click here for Team Sanders.

First the first time in its history, the NFL Pro Bowl won’t be going by conferences. Instead, there will be a schoolyard feel to it with two men picking teams. Hall of Famers Jerry Rice and Deion Sanders began to put their teams together in Day 1 of the Pro Bowl draft on Tuesday. They’ll fill out their teams with skilled players on Wednesday. with the game that will be played Jan. 26 in Aloha Stadium of Hawaii.

Day 2 of the draft will be televised at 8 p.m. on NFL Network.

The Pro Bowl rosters won’t be entirely filled until Day 2 of the draft on Wednesday, but they began to take shape Tuesday. Team captains were selected, and the teams drafted interior defensive and offensive linemen, fullbacks and special teams players.

Here is a complete look at the players drafted Tuesday.

The Day 1 portion of the draft will begin with a coin toss. The winner will have the option to pick a captain pairing or the right to pick first during the drafts on Tuesday and Wednesday. From there, Rice and Sanders will alternate draft selections, pulling from a pool of the 88 players selected to the Pro Bowl. That pool changed dramatically recently with the Seattle and Denver players selected having to be replaced by alternates. With a number of injury replacements also subbing in, the rosters are dramatically different than the ones originally announced.

While most of the attention will be focused on Day 2 of the draft, when the skill players are selected, the first 22 players will be selected on Tuesday. Teams are limited to a certain number of players at each position. When they fill their quota, the undrafted players at that position will automatically be assigned to the other team. For example, if Rice used his first three picks on defensive tackles, the remaining three Pro Bowl defensive tackles would automatically go to Team Sanders. On Tuesday, each team will either draft or be assigned three defensive tackles, three offensive guards, two centers, one fullback, one punter and one special teamer.

Update: Sources have told Pro Football Talk that Bowman has torn his ACL and MCL.

Somehow, the refs gave the recovery to the Seahawks. A fumbled snap on fourth down provided cosmic justice and gave the ball back to San Francisco.

Rosters for the 2014 Pro Bowl were released weeks ago, but, as is always the case, injuries and player availability will result in additional players being called in as reinforcements.

Pittsburgh Steeler Antonio Brown has been reassigned as a wide receiver, opening up a spot at kick return specialist.