Carson Palmer Skips Pro Bowl For Thumb Surgery

The Pro Bowl is such a joke.

The reason why Tennessee Titans quarterback Vince Young was named to the Pro Bowl as a fourth alternate is because third alternate, Carson Palmer, is recovering from thumb surgery.

As reported by the Cincinnati Enquirer , Palmer had successful thumb surgery last week on his non-throwing hand and is recovering in his home in California.

The thumb was injured way back in week five against the Ravens. For the rest of the season he played with a glove on his left hand. Palmer was forced to hand the ball off with his throwing hand which made for some awkward hand-offs. Plenty of commentators foreshadowed a chance that the unorthodox hand-offs could lead to a fumble sooner or later. Despite not looking pretty, Palmer never had a problem with the exchange.

Palmer would rather go through surgery than play in the meaningless contest. The lack of memorable moments in the game is outrageous considering the star power. Name me your favorite Pro Bowl memory? I can't think of one.

Gobs of players find any injury excuse to get out of playing in a game that has less importance than a preseason game. Now that's saying something.

The game is next Sunday, a week before the Super Bowl. Great, don't let any player from the two best teams in the NFL get a chance to be in the game. Makes perfect sense to me.

I always thought the Pro Bowl was a way to extend the NFL for one more week. It already has the smallest schedule of any of the four main sports, so why shrink the calender? Does moving it to Jan. 31 really make the NFL any more money than having the game two weeks later?

Players know that their bodies are basically what gets them paid. So why put your money-maker on the line in a exhibition that pays you only a sliver of your current multi-million dollar deal? Why put forth any effort at all? What's the worst that can happen; some random coach from a team you play every four years gets mad and benches you?

These are the questions I'll be asking when I get to meet Roger Goodell.

Something needs to be tweaked in this game to make it relevant.