Pro Bowl
Posted on December 18th, 2007 – 4:22 PMBy Michael Rand
The Vikings have 7 Pro Bowlers. The Packers have 4. Discuss.
51 Responses to "Pro Bowl"
The selection committee a) took pity on the Vikings or b) like Oprah, liked the color purple
Somewhere in St. Paul, a man in a Lynn Dickey jersey and black bicycle shorts gnashes his teeth and curses the heavens.
By selection committee you mean NFL coaches (1/3), NFL players (1/3), and the voting public (1/3), right?
Hmmmm…who is the strong safety for the NFC? The name looks familiar…but I’ve heard someone say that he’s not good anymore. Funny, I wonder who knows better…the aforementioned individual or the Pro Bowl Selection folks?
It’s so weird, everyone that P3 dislikes so much is on the team. Well, fear breeds dislike. I’ll just go with that.
Joining Peterson on the team will be fullback Tony Richardson, left guard Steve Hutchinson, center Matt Birk, strong safety Darren Sharper, defensive tackle Kevin Williams and nose tackle Pat Williams.
The NFL is going to have to charter the Concord to fly Phat Willems over to Hawai!! (/paulos)
Packers, after all, are and should be, since they are proven winners, held to a far higher standard. Clearly an attempt at parity in all it’s ugly forms. Pretty soon Cretin kids will be pro bowlers at this rate. Another offshoot of the wild and wooly Wild Card system, I guess.
Jacksonville - 0.
Anyone get out of hand last night?
People like the name Sharper….but what if his name was Duller. I rest my case.
Yeah, “proven winners”…
2005 wasn’t that long ago.
In P3’s limited defense, the Pro Bowl voting can be baffling sometimes, and reputation seems to be a bigger qualifier than actual performance. (Tony Richardson? Really?)
I think Tony Richardson making the team can be chalked up to the fact that fewer and fewer teams are actually using fullbacks anymore.
Besides Dave, you know what buttsni..ers most fans are. Heck, most get hammered watching their heros so what do they know of these “stars” anyway. Also, once someone is well known, like that Charles Manson guy, no one forgets him no matter how he plays or slays.
No, Sharper gets burnt, is often out of place and misses alot of open field tackles esp on quick runners. Put down the beer and watch the game and you’ll see. After all, no matter who you are with, you don’t want to be s.if.ing their butt, ay…or worse yet, be a true believer. Enoough of those sky pointing on the field.
I think Kermit the Frog stuffed the ballot one year and got elected for his leaping ability
ramon: sadly, no.
The Pro Bowl is to football as salad is to a meal: something to bolt down until real football starts up in Fall
Fair point, young David.
P3: I assume you can tell us who should be playing in Sharper’s stead, right? If you’re this outraged about the selection, it must be because there’s someone clearly playing better than him, and not because of his current employer. Because the latter would make you…a Packer fan.
Nevermind.
Rodney Harrison, Nick Collins (sorry he’s a Packer, but I’m not), Jermaine Phillips
I played my jr and senior year as a safety and must admit playing corner is much harder. We all had to play both ways since this was only high school, but way too much is made about saftey takeaways, since most of the ones I see now and most of the ones I caught then were on underthrows (like Sharper’s catch) or overthrows. Granted the safety is the last line of defense but their chief function is to close quickly and tackle well (like Winfield). I don’t think Sharper is as good at either of these skills now as when he jumped ship. He gets alot of credit out of name recognition, but day in and day out it’s the corners that make or break a team..
Stu - you’re telling me Kyle Orton didn’t show up at the Park Tavern? No ride?
P3
Rodney Harrison plays for the Patriots in the AFC so it might be hard for him to play for the NFC Pro Bowl team.
I do actually agree that Sharper is making this trip because of name recognition. I will attempt to find better candidates tomorrow but for the time being I’ll let him enjoy this vote.
I like the guy, so I included him. Sh.t happens. Even with an expert like me
Ramon: I think it was 2-for-1 night for dudes with neckbeards at Bullwinkle’s, so I assume he went to Seven Corners.
More veterans! If only we still had Smoooooooooot!
I said it 5-6 years ago when he was playing for the Pack and I’ll say it again now when he’s playing for my favorite team: Sharper is the most opportunistic, overrated cherry-pickin player on the pro-bowl roster. He’s got a nose for the football but no other f-ball skills. This day and age its all about the #s and the highlight reels - which is unfortunate and why a guy like Antoine Winfield has never made a pro-bowl
The Pro Bowl voting, considering it’s inbred “Deliverance” style home town voting, is alot like voting for Prom King…as in later on in years, people will look at their yearbooks and hoot at the clown they elected. I agree with Jefe that an int. sticks in the minds of football fans i.e. like that intelligent kid playing banjo on the bridge in Delverance, but that position is much more than that, specifically having the all out speed and savvy to vamp on the ball carrier. Sharper just doesn’t, America. Smell the glove…
Seven?
Wow!!
Now I’ll feel much more confident placing a bet on this important game.
Pro Bolwers..Vikings
Birk and Hutchinson: yes decent, but Birk on downslide (what other muscles can he pull ?….Peterson: reluctantly yes, but here’s a guy not only with a good fan rep, but a sympathy vote from that Pack game (and who in the galaxy hasn’t seen him writhing on the grouund a million times in every NFL wrapup in the land). He has potential to be great and also to be hurt. I guess hurt B4 great ..Richardson: no if only because few teams employ this archaic position very much. Most of his votes must have come from an area between Stillwater and the Gold Coast (Minnetonka)…Sharper: pleeze ! what do you think will happen with Duller when he faces an accurate q.b. like Brady or Manning, esp. with his (by today’s standar’s) sun dial safety speed. No, don’t imagine that. It’s too early in the day to be bummed out…Keven Williams: Yes though I really do hope some helmet to helmet crash makes him swallow that grinning fool’s gum turning him purple in the process (sorry Dave)..and finally Phat: absolutely not. This guy is only on fan’s radar screens since every time he waddles on or off the field announcers gush (and most of their job description is gushing) how big and immovable he is, which is so lame an argument in the playoffs where rbs will simply run around him and qbs throw over him while he gasps for breath and retreats like a water buffalo to the sidelines. He’s basically a Buick with a face..but no Pro Bowler is he
This has turned into ACCESS VIKINGS without a caps lock lately. WTF?
The Packers are 12 and 2, not 12 and 3.
(RE: Star Trib 12-19-07, page A2.)
Thanks.
Sharper was overrated when he was with the Packers too. He’s getting in this year based on that reputation, combined with 4 picks, and a weak NFC safety pool. Similar to how Al Harris got in, I imagine, considering the toasting I saw him get in a couple games.
Nathan, notice how the RandBall regulars clear out once it gets a little too ACCESS VIKINGSesque…
Seriously Dave. It’s scary.
I rarely give any of the Vikings any credit (but realistically that’s because teams not individuals win championships, and the Vikings have won how many championships ?), but the best guy on your D was left off and that was E.J. (soon to be All Pro E.J. at Stillwater) Hendrickson. I mean any r.b. running wide around his tight end would much rather run into Duller (and how come nobody b..ches about all the rollin’ tackles he tries to make..and misses. Remember that Lambeau game ?) or E.J. ? Duller is a annoying mosquito to E.J.’s swatter, so why no Pro Bowl for him ? No idea.
Maybe it’s because Duller just pops off to the press about what he’s going to do to Green bay or whoever and the lap dog press looking for cheap quotes s..ks it up. E.J. leaves his talking on the field. So what if guys like he and gum smackin’ Williams are not role models. It’s not in their contracts to be role modeels or heros for clowns like those on these pages !
But in case anyone wants a quickee summary of how Vikings and normalcy do not mix ..check here..
http://www.realgmfootball.com/src_teamarticle/84/20051014/the_real_life_playmakers/
And dave, as for the regulars skipping out when newer, fresher, sharper and more confrontational minds appear, don’t let the door hit you in your wide load as you whine and slink off…
Seriously, P3, that’s why you think the regulars leave? You’ve developed quite an opinion of yourself.
(I’m going to take the job of speaking for others here) I think we get tired of seeing the same thing written over and over ad nauseam. Just because you tweak a couple words in each comment, doesn’t really make them all that different from each other.
Thanks for the name calling, too. If you haven’t noticed, it’s not really the way we tend to work around here.
P3 - I don’t get you. You spend a few days (hours? Posts?) actually making some halfway decent posts, where you state the opinion you are more than welcome to share in a largely understandable matter, and then you revert to petty name calling in largely unreadable posts. Like Dave said, regulars tend to leave threads when it becomes VIKING ACCESS like, not P3 like. And we do because the typical VIKINGS ACCESS poster is like you on your bad days–possibly worse. In fact, you often ridicule us as though we were VIKING ACCESS posters, which is probably why most of us would prefer you just stop again.
By the way, congrats on finding a post about the Vikings legal troubles. If you haven’t noticed due to your obsession with the Vikings, a few other teams have had problems over the years too. Any Packer players hang out in locked bathrooms with drunk 17-year old girls lately? Any oft-injured Packers RB beat their wives up lately? Any Packer draft picks take a dump in their ex-girlfriends laundry hampers lately?
Any Packer draft picks take a dump in their ex-girlfriends laundry hampers lately?
Aaron, what are you doing?! Whatever, you aren’t even a starting quarterback…I’m with Kyle Orton, now.
Toonce, my comments about E.J. were right on and shared even by my Viking friends, and they made up most of that post, so it seems that not only I but you regulars (what R U an Army ?) have selective viewing…
Just closing the bold tag there…
Okay, apparently the bold doesn’t want to go away Once again…
I don’t know how my print just came out in bold or if you can even see it that way (I can) but it’s sort of regal looking. As for the gist of my comments, Duller goes why E.J. doesn’t ? Not much discussion am I reading about that. As for “name calling” I told Dave not to let the door hit him in the “wide load”. People have said alot worse on these pages
If other people posted that they jumped off a bridge, would you too?
I agree that EJ should have gone before Sharper, although I would suspect that LB is a tougher spot than Safety–I mean, the guy voted to start opposite Sharper missed two games with an injured knee before being shot to death.
Too soon for that? Sorry.
But seriously, Ken Hamlin is the other safety? That screams weak class to me. At LB, Henderson had to beat out Tatupu and Patrick Willis, not to mention probably some votes for Urlacher (similar to Sharper, based completely on his reputation, not his play).
In the end, like others (and maybe even you) have said, it’s just the Pro Bowl–who really cares?
Not to point it out, but I believe these terms were used:
“Clowns”
“Whine” - Insinuating that we’re whiners here.
and “skipping out when newer, fresher, sharper and more confrontational minds” - Insinuating that the regulars here are none of those things. Why do you even read and post here, Mr. Paulos, if you’re so much better than this?
Clown may be rude (it is), but I wrote for RandB at times when it was a full and free flying column (and should have stayed that way, you Star penny pinchers !), and I even read this blog or post or whatever the he.l it’s called before I even wrote in it, and yes, to tell you the truth, I feel that I (usually, maybe not always) do offer a “newer, fresher, sharper and most surely a more confrontational view”.
You see I’ve never liked to float with the current, with people largely agreeing with one another, so newer, fresher, sharper and more confrontational is not really just how I try to write. It just strikes me as that kind of writing (seen more clearly as a sniper behind enemy lines) is in my blood. You see, following the Army ad that has produced so much, I am an Army of One, and loving it….
“This comment is more or less unintelligible. Please try to restate it.” - P3 5000
Danonymous: That’s COW-worthy.
Dave if that was your “Cow” (how puerile (Latin, duh) you must be) holding such low standards for your very highest and most cherished position, so flat out copying another blog is now…a “newer, fresher, and sharper” view ? What would you call an older and incredibly stale view then. But I finally get it ! You guys really are the Osmond bros. in drag the way you have zip to say but can sing it so magnificently and always in the same key….B’sniffers one and all. The Cow concept fits you…
I want y’all to know the moderator, bless his puple and dead heart, is now playing the 12th man for you blocking a piece so innocuous any of you could have written it.
Pat Williams shouldn’t be in the pro bowl? Are you high? Just because he’s a fatass doesn’t mean he can’t play. He has been a much bigger part of the Vikings’ #1 rush defense this year than Kevin, IMHO, but I am glad they both made it, as I thought both were deserving.
Jack, I don’t consider athletes who stuff one hole “athletes”. Personal opinion. I just expect “athletes” to do the unexpected and move. Another personal opinion.
Marion Barber, Cowboys Chad Clifton, Green Bay Trent Cole, Phil Mike Patterson, Phil O.J. Atogwe, St. Louis and Mason Crosby, Green Bay have all been mentioned by a very reputable internet sports “authority” (not me) that I will name since for some reason the bucket of silicone chips at the Star doesn’t like this provider or this guy (but some day, I’ll sequester myself into the Star and remove that bucket’s flimsy Hard Drive and…well, I’ll stop. It might be listening)
