Pro Bowl combinations can be strange
Despite Sunday's devastating loss, Giants safety Antrel Rolle is confident in his team's playoff chances. Credit: David Pokress
Antrel Rolle wanted to play in a looser atmosphere and have more fun. Sunday, he'll get his wish.
Rolle, along with three other Giants and two Jets, will take part in the Pro Bowl, the NFL's annual all-star pantomime that returns to Hawaii this year after a one-year stopover in Miami in 2010.
Rolle will be joined on the NFC team by Giants teammates Justin Tuck, Chris Snee and long-snapper Zak DeOssie. The Jets' Darrelle Revis and D'Brickashaw Ferguson will play for the AFC squad. Revis, Ferguson, Rolle and Snee will be starters.
Each area team was going to send a center to Hawaii, too, but each had to withdraw from the game because of injury. The Giants' Shaun O'Hara battled ankle and foot issues all season and already has had one of two corrective surgical procedures. The Jets' Nick Mangold (hamstring) was injured in last week's AFC title game against the Steelers.
With the mishmashing of players to form the rosters, there are bound to be some awkward moments. The Jets, for instance, not only will be calling seven Patriots players their teammates but will be working under Bill Belichick and his staff. And Cardinals defensive lineman Darnell Dockett, one of the players who questioned the toughness of Bears quarterback Jay Cutler on Twitter last week, could be lining up next to the Bears' Julius Peppers.
"There isn't even anything to squash. Dock is Dock," Peppers said this past week. "Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. He had his opinion. It may not be true, you know what I mean? But it's not really a big deal. It's been overblown."
Not all of the tensions will be between players from competing teams. In a Miami radio interview a few weeks ago, Rolle complained about Tom Coughlin, saying he wished the coach would "loosen up" and noting that he did not have fun playing for the Giants in 2010. Tuck, the Giants' defensive captain, said he planned to speak with Rolle about those comments. Most assume that conversation has taken place in Hawaii.
Overall, though, the tone of the Pro Bowl is far from the intensity of a regular-season game and nothing like what the players on the Steelers and Packers are preparing for next week. It's not all about playing for funsies, though. Each player on the winning Pro Bowl team receives $45,000; each player on the losing squad earns $22,500.
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