by Morris Phillips

HONOLULU–The most interesting thing is you could end up tackling your own teammate under the new Pro Bowl format when as in this case Pro Bowl honary team captains Dieon Sanders and Jerry Rice who might pick teammates to play against each other. They could end up blocking or guarding their teammate. In regards to the San Francisco 49ers and Oakland Raiders obviously they won’t see that because they’ve opted out with the exception of 49ers safety Eric Reid who will be the one 49er representative and the Raiders Marcel Reece that’s really the most intesting thing.

Your going to see guys from different teams together but you defintely don’t want to be tackling your own teammates you might get a phone call from the general manager at half time. You have to give the league credit for trying to change it and if anybody wants to inject the issue of records of the Pro Bowl they aren’t exactly hollowed treasured records in that respect I don’t have an issue with it either.

The Atlanta Falcons Tony Gonzalez was selected for the Pro Bowl in place of the 49ers Vernon Davis, it’s great for Gonzalez because he came back to accomplish something that was not as important to him as it was to the organization that he plays for in Atlanta and his teammates. It obviously didn’t happen in a really dignified way
for him to end his football career in Honolulu this week.

The Kanasas City Chiefs quarterback Alex Smith has been chosen for the Pro Bowl and he had a great season in Kansas City and he wasn’t really a factor in them losing the playoff games two weeks ago congratulations and the 49ers are questioned if they should have continued with Smith and going with 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick. This is Smith’s first selection to the game.

The Chiefs have the most selections and they deserve that, you got to give them credit for putting it all together with head coach Andy Reid in his first year. Just like the 49ers, Kansas City has a strong core of players that obviously didn’t do very well last year. So it’s interesting how the NFL has these pockets of talented players that don’t find their way to fruition unless they have the right coach and right situation.

The other aspect here is the Pro Bowl is not just losing just two teams, the two teams that are in the Super Bowl the Seahawks and the Broncos. The game is also losing the other two teams as well the Patriots and the 49ers. Nobody wants to lose, in the conference championship and playing it the following week in Honolulu. There are a number of injured players the 49ers Mike Iupati, Frank Gore, and not that you want to bounce back with another game so you have to look at that too, their losing four teams effectively for the Pro Bowl every year.

Morris Phillips is covering the Pro Bowl for Sportstalk Radio