I don’t know about you all, but this year was particularly hard when it came to watching the Pro Bowl.

I had a tough time watching Jared Allen, Adrian Peterson, Steve Hutchinson, and Heath Farwell play a meaningless game at the site of the Super Bowl.  I had an even tougher time listening to the ESPN crew drool over the Manning and Brees matchup that we’ll see this weekend.

Peterson was fairly quiet (as were most running backs in this one) with three carries for 17 yards and one catch for five yards.  Perhaps his most shining moment came on a one yard run when Ray Lewis and company made a blatant effort to slap the ball out of Peterson’s arms, but he held on to it.

Jared Allen had about as decent of an outing as he could with the special rules for the Pro Bowl.  Allen had four tackles, on that went for a loss of four yards, and a batted pass.  Allen had to pull himself away from multiple sack opportunities.

Hutchinson and Farwell seemed to hold their own just fine under the circumstances.

The timing was different this year, as the Pro Bowl is normally held after the Super Bowl and in Hawaii.  This was reportedly the second largest attendance in the history of the event.

To me, the Pro Bowl has always provided the “decrescendo” after the post-season that wraps up all the drama and gives fans one last look at their favorite players before the offseason.  By putting the game before the Super Bowl, it gets over-shadowed by the exponentially more exciting event that is yet to come.  In a normal year, we wouldn’t have to see 57 shots of Peyton Manning and Drew Bress strolling along the sidelines in their matching wind breakers.