Sidelines
This time, NFL
AFC strolls past NFC
all-stars played for real
Kick returner made statement
Williams thrives here again
Pro Bowl notebook
Game stats and historyIT was an all-star game. Wasn't it? This was an all-star game. This was the Pro Bowl, which means smiles in the sunshine and TV timeouts and singing and dancers and mascots and all-star cheerleaders and "world-famous dancer and choreographer Cris Judd."
(Who, of course, is world-famous mostly because he is the soon-to-be ex-Mr. Jennifer Lopez.)
It's an all-star game, an exhibition, one long feel-good Chunky Soup commercial for the NFL.
(Not that there's anything wrong with that.)
This is autographs for kids in wheelchairs and made-for-TV fun and sideline reporter Lynn Swann catching footballs from Peyton Manning during timeouts. And lots of Bobby Bowden interviews in the middle of the game.
"I always like coming here," Oakland's Rod Woodson said after the game, "because it's a free vacation."
That's the Pro Bowl.
But then it got weird. There were quarterbacks running for their lives. There was hitting, hard. They fought for footballs and dove for tackles and cheated on defense, running special schemes (illegal in all-star games!) to get to the passer.
There was Manning, who goes to great lengths to cultivate a good-guy image, going off on a nationally televised rant about "our idiot kicker."
Goodbye, Captain Vanilla.
There was Donovan McNabb, the tough Philly scrambler, saving himself, somehow escaping doom, somehow eluding Miami's Jason Taylor, who played as if a playoff berth was at stake.
There was McNabb, this time the one chasing Taylor, catching up with him after time expired, and only half-jokingly exclaiming, "Why don't y'all cut that out!"
It's an all-star game, for goodness sake!
But Taylor kept coming, hard, fast. He chased McNabb downfield for 20 yards. He caused false-start penalties.
This was something different.
They played defense.
In an all-star game.
"That's the only way to play the game," McNabb would later say in the locker room, putting on his Chunky Soup face. "Full speed."
It was nice. They all say they always play hard, but if that's the case, then last year I was fooled.
But this was a different Pro Bowl. There was a game (even if the score didn't indicate it) that went along with the autographs and the halftime show. That's the way Taylor played it. That was Ricky Williams forcing a fumble on kickoff coverage. LaVar Arrington, drilling Williams in midair at the goal line.
There were eight interceptions. They tried to block punts.
There was that incredible last play of the first half in which everyone touched the ball but the all-star cheerleaders.
But the best part about that play? Terrell Owens' determined tackle at the end, refusing to let Taylor score.
This wasn't just another day in the sun, not this time.
"You want to bring a smile to people's faces, and the way to bring a smile to them is to give them a little competition," McNabb would say.
That's exactly right, guys. Note to the NFL: This is more fun than Jennifer Love Hewitt.
Well, almost.
Kalani Simpson can be reached at ksimpson@starbulletin.com