The best players in the league . . .so far . . .

The ever-pretentious Greg Easterbrook has been complaining about Pro Bowl selections for years now. He brought up the argument again this week. He specifically points out the Eagles as a team that was probably short changed in the Pro Bowl voting:

The NFC Pro Bowl roster includes 16 players from teams that did not reach the playoffs, and only two Philadelphia Eagles. Yet the Eagles were the NFC's hottest team down the stretch and on Sunday played tremendous defense.

Greg's argument, as most of his arguments are, is flawed (Has any else actually read The Progress Paradox?). Pointing out that a team is hot down the stretch also only looks at part of the season, Greg. Picking players from a team that's hot down the stretch is equally as moronic as picking players from team's that get off to fast starts (i.e. Cowboys and Jets). Still, the current voting system is inaccurate. The NFL needs to focus on the WHOLE SEASON. Isn't that the point of having the Pro Bowl after the season is over? Why announce the selections after 14 games? You're so close to being done with the whole season, why not just wait 2 more weeks? Selecting the rosters at that point in the season will inevitably lead to poor selections (see Tony Romo 2 years ago).

Let's take a look at one of my favorite arguments as an example from this season. I never miss a chance to tell anyone that will listen that Eli Manning is a bad QB. Despite my opinions, he was selected to the Pro Bowl this year. McNabb was not, even though he set the Eagles franchise record for passing yards in a season in '08. I'm not sure that McNabb deserved to be named to the Pro Bowl this year. I think he was more deserving than Eli, but there were still better options out there.

Kurt Warner and Drew Brees were locks to go to the Pro Bowl this year. Both had outstanding seasons. The third QB spot is where it gets tricky. Guys like Rodgers, Romo, Ryan and McNabb all had better seasons than Eli. Not to mention all these other QB's are generally less feminine than Elisha. That has to be taken into consideration. The selections are based off of votes from three different parties: the fans, players and coaches. Through 14 games, the voters saw Eli as a QB of the #1 seeded team in the NFC. An eighth of the season still remained to be played, however. Statistically, Eli finished the season in the middle of the pack amongst NFC QB's. Sure, he is the starting QB of a good team, but this is a power running, they shouldn't be featuring a Pro Bowl QB.

If you want further proof that the system is flawed, check out the AFC QB voting. Tell me how Brett Favre made the team over the NFL's top rated passer Phillip Rivers. Check out Favre. He finished as the 21st rated passer. He was behind names like Gerrard, Edwards, Hill and Campbell. Luckily for Rivers, there is a good chance Brett will miss the Pro Bowl due to injury.

Hopefully once we get this whole college football championship thing worked out, we can concentrate on getting some kind of legit Pro Bowl voting system. Its very important to me that we get the most deserving players into a game that I have a 0% chance of watching anyway. Unless somehow we can get Sean Taylor to play again.