By Josh Katzowitz

The Pro Bowl, as we all know, is a joke.

We tried making some suggestions last year (um, hello, running clock?!?), and this year, we described why the changes the NFL did make didn’t improve the quality of the game.

Not only do we see this game as an exercise in irrelevance, mostly because the players’ effort is lacking, but apparently so does Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers.

During his regular appearance on ESPN Milwaukee, Rodgers said  the NFC players “embarrassed themselves” during the game last Sunday. He also said he was "disappointed in the lack of pride.”

Said Rodgers: “I feel like there should be some pride involved in a game like that, and I was just surprised by some of the efforts of some of the guys. This was my second Pro Bowl. (I) played in the one in 2010. It was down in Fort Lauderdale/Miami. I felt that that one had a lot more energy.

“The AFC side obviously had more energy. I think they were upset about the second onside kick (called by Packers coach Mike McCarthy), and at that point they played a lot harder than we did. But even in the early going, they were playing definitely harder than we were.”

Obviously, there’s no reason for the Pro Bowl selections to go all out and risk injury, and the NFL enforces special rules in the game to decrease those chances as well. But when the defensive linemen are basically shaking hands with the offensive linemen each time the ball is snapped and when would-be-tacklers let ball-rushers run right by them for touchdowns, you have to ask yourself, what’s the point of watching this?

And maybe now Rodgers is asking himself, what’s the point of playing?

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Marshall would trade all the trophies in the world for a quarterback in Miami. (Getty Images)

By Will Brinson

Brandon Marshall had a monster game at the Pro Bowl, catching six passes for 176 yards and four touchdowns in an MVP performance Sunday night. Considering he had just six touchdowns all of last year, Dolphins fans probably want to know what the difference was.

Well, no defense for one thing. And there's another difference: the guys who were getting Marshall the ball.

"Down in Miami getting a feel for different quarterbacks with having three or four throughout my two years there, the quarterbacks make it easy for me," Marshall said.

Philip Rivers, Ben Roethlisberger and Andy Dalton had six touchdowns between them, and just 15 incompletions combined. They lit up the scoreboard, as well as the NFC defense en route to 59 points.

They are very good quarterbacks. But Marshall's pretty clearly making a point here: he wants to play with a better quarterback than the group that's on the current Dolphins roster.

Lest you think we're reaching for this based on his comments, we're not. Jeff Darlington of NFL.com reported over the weekend that Marshall reached out to Packers quarterback (and soon-to-be free agent) Matt Flynn and the possibility of him coming to South Beach.

"Hey man, listen, I'm out here at the Pro Bowl, and I'm not getting no balls thrown to me!" Marshall joked to Darlington. "I need a quarterback. You've got Big Ben throwing to [Mike] Wallace, you've got Philip throwing to [Antonio] Gates and Vincent [Jackson], you've got Andy throwing to A.J. [Green]. I'm the only guy out here, man!"

What, you might ask, should happen with Dolphins incumbent quarterback Matt Moore? Well, he's signed for 2012, but Marshall doesn't really seem to care all that much.

"Obviously, Matt [Moore] had a great year," Marshall said. "You don't want to take anything away from Matt, but I think we really bring in somebody who can compete and make the team better."

Moore's not the franchise quarterback the Dolphins and Marshall want. That's OK -- he wasn't supposed to be when they signed him to compete with Chad Henne last year.

But he's also not a punching bag. And it's not really his fault Marshall signed a $50 million extension to stay in Miami even without

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By Josh Katzowitz

A couple new exciting (!) features this season were supposed to make this year’s Pro Bowl slightly more palatable. It didn’t exactly work.

The first change was to make it a more financially-sound decision for the players to give an effort by rewarding the winning players with $50,000 and the losers a paltry $25,000.*

So, how’d that work out? Well, look at the tweet from Bears radio sideline reporter @ZachZaidman, who tweeted the following in the first quarter: “I'd rather watch players in the Pro Bowl tweet about playing in the Pro Bowl than watch them play in the Pro Bowl.”

Indeed, most of the effort given in Hawaii was rather, um, lacking. Which is totally understandable and to be expected. There’s no sense in badly injuring yourself in order to triumph in a glorified All Star game. So, no matter the monetary incentive, an extra $25,000 isn’t going to make the risk/reward ratio any different.

* For the record, this is similar to what Will Brinson proposed last year when he wrote the NFL should make it a winner-take-all event.

“Make it winner-take-all so that each player's legitimately motivated to win the game and make the Pro Bowl competitive,” Will wrote.

Heck of an idea by Will and the NFL. Unfortunately, it didn’t work.

The second change, though, really could have been interesting. Well, as interesting as anything else the Pro Bowl could offer.

The NFL relaxed its in-game tweeting prohibition and actually set up computer stations on the sideline so players could instantly translate their in-game ramblings into 140-word thoughts. It was, um, not so exciting.

Or as the Newark Star Ledger’s @StevePoliti tweeted, “Tweeting stations. I turned on the Pro Bowl, and they're talking about tweeting stations."

Here’s a sampling of what entered our feed during the game.

@MillerLite40 (Von Miller): first series was great!!! it was an honor just to be on the field with all the guys!!!! #gigem #probowl

@ajgreen_18 (A.J. Green): first pro bowl TD!!! blessed!! #probowl

@GregJennings: Having a blast out here... bout to go out on O to catch some more passes!!

@ericweddle1: Truly blessed to be here! Such a amazing atmosphere #GREATFUL

To sum it all up, here’s “Late Show with David Letterman” (#onCBS!) head writer Eric Stangel, who penned the following, “Remember everyone, with the #ProBowl, this year- it counts! And by "counts" I mean is a complete waste of everyone's time."

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By Josh Katzowitz

OK, see if this makes sense.

Bears running back Matt Forte was placed on injured reserve this season after injuring his knee on Dec. 3, and already obviously displeased with the way Chicago hadn’t given him the contract extension he so dearly wanted, he said he wouldn’t return to play unless he was 100 percent.

“I'm not going to rush to get back on the field and play while I'm hurt, because (if) you're not at 100 percent you may injure it even more if you do that,” Forte said then.

Right, that’s fine. Smart even. If the Bears won’t pay him what he feels he deserves, there’s no sense in Forte possibly hurting himself again if he’s not completely healthy.

But Thursday the Bears announced Forte had passed his physical and had cleared him to play in the Pro Bowl. It sounds like that’s exactly what Forte will do.

And all I can think is: why? Why would he risk getting injured again as he moves into free agency?  Yeah, the Bears very well could place the franchise tag on him, but I’m betting they won’t if he tears his ACL during the game (hey, Robert Edwards effectively ended his career during that week of celebration).

Is he, as one Twitter follower suggested, simply flipping the bird to the Bears? If that’s the case, it seems like an awfully big risk for a few minutes of pleasure. Not sure I understand.

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