Sorry, the Pro Bowl stinks!

The Pro Bowl stinks.

I can’t think of any other way to explain it. It’s a heaping hunk of garbage that likely makes the inventors of the sport roll over in their graves.

The gameplay is lax – glorified two-hand touch action. The players don’t want to play, the coaches don’t want to coach, and it’s a game that was past its peak 20 years ago. Just watch it for 10 minutes and you’ll see what I mean – those guys would rather be undergoing a root canal than playing in that game, and it shows.

The fact it even still exists today is another in a long list of awful decisions that Roger Goodell has made during his tenure as NFL commissioner.

Don’t get me wrong – I’ll watch the game. I just think it stinks. I’m going in with low expectations, and I won’t be disappointed. What other choice do I have? At 7 p.m. on a football-less Sunday, pretty much the only thing else on TV is reruns of “Matlock” and “The Golden Girls.” I love Betty White, but I love Tony Romo and sports a little bit more.

But the fact I’m even being forced to legitimately contemplate a sitcom filled with old ladies over a sport that I love proves my point: the Pro Bowl stinks.

The entire process just needs a drastic overhaul – a facelift to get people interested in the game again.

What’s funny is the league did exactly that a few years ago when it moved the Pro Bowl from the Sunday before the Super Bowl. It used to be played a week after the big game.

To me, that was a huge mistake – even though television ratings disagree.

My stance is it’s impossible for a league to justify playing an “All-Star” game within a sport when the best players on the two best teams within said league are ineligible to play?

Let that marinate in your mind for a minute. Imagine going to McDonald’s and not being able to order fries or a Big Mac. Sure, the store probably would be able to survive, and you’d probably be able to find something to fill up your stomach on a menu filled with chicken nuggets, apple pies, McFlurries and grilled chicken sandwiches. But without the Big Mac, it’s just not the same – it’s a product and business model that lacks credibility and name recognition.

That’s how I also feel about the Pro Bowl. Without players from the two best teams, the game is completely star-depleted. When one considers a lot of the veteran players around the NFL ditch the game to rest their battle-scarred body, we end up with a bunch of has-beens and never-was guys who we just don’t have much of an interest in seeing.

In 2007, Marion Barber made the Pro Bowl, despite rushing for a mere 700 yards on the season. In 2001, Marcellus Wiley punched a ticket to Hawaii with a very pedestrian 24 tackles and four sacks. And what about Vince Young?

The former Texas standout was a two-time Pro Bowl selection, despite hardly mustering 2,000 yards passing and barely having more touchdowns than interceptions.

Today, it’s worse and the selection process is simply crippled with the Super Bowl teams out of the pool. If the game ever expects to thrive and become special, it needs to go back to its slot after the Lombardi Trophy is handed out. I just can’t get excited about a football competition without Peyton Manning, Richard Sherman and all of the other stars who will sit this one out.

A dramatic overhaul in gameplay is needed, as well.

Because football is such a high-risk sport, the rules of the game greatly limit contact.

We usually end up seeing a virtual flag football game where none of the players are wearing flags. By that, I mean that a player catches a pass and then runs into the end zone – over and over again.

I don’t like Pac-12 football. I don’t like shootouts. Annually, the Pro Bowl is a game consisting of both with the winning team routinely scoring 50 or more points – if not more.

That’s just not my cup of tea. If you’re not allowed to hit, then I don’t want to see it. If I’m forced to watch a non-contact sport, I’ll take basketball over football any day.

I think it’s time that the league embraces the fact that the NFL players don’t want to play in this game and call it a day.

I’d name a Pro Bowl team in roster only and eliminate the game.

For TV purposes, I’d instead hold a Pro Bowl Weekend similar to the NBA All-Star Weekend where fans would be able to see some of the best NFL stars compete in an array of skills within the sport.

Maybe have an eight-man, single-elimination tournament to see who the fastest player in the NFL is over both 40 yards and 100 yards. Maybe have a quarterback passing competition to see who has both the biggest and most accurate arm. Maybe have a competition where linebackers hit practice dummies as hard as they can and the winner is the player who’s hit generated the most impact in terms of pounds of force.

All of those things are better than what we have now, and I’m ready for it to be considered. Because the Pro Bowl stinks. After 10-straight years of boring, contact-less football, I think we all can agree this is a game that could (and should) be done away with permanently.

And for the record, before we close out, I’ll give you a little bit of a peak into my Super Bowl prediction.

I predict the betting lines will change, folks will overreact to New England’s big win and Seattle’s close win.

For the official score and prediction, you’ll just have to read next week’s column.