2013 Pro Bowl Report

What the hell is going on out there? A spy in the huddle?

Not quite. Packers center Jeff Saturday, as everyone knows, spent his first thirteen seasons in Indianapolis before coming to Green Bay as a free agent at the beginning of this season. His time in a Packer uniform wasn't terribly productive—he was benched in December—but that didn't stop him from being the leading vote-getter of all offensive linemen in fan voting.

Saturday announced that he would retire after the Pro Bowl, so with the permission of Commissioner Roger Goodell he hopped the line to take one last snap from Peyton Manning (now representing the Broncos).

That's obviously the only time a Packer has played a down for the AFC.

On the sidelines, NFC coach Mike McCarthy and his counterparts eschewed the Hawai'ian shirts of recent years for more sedate conference colors.

And that's all the Packers-related news from what will hopefully be the last Pro Bowl ever played.

We could talk about other notable moments from the game, for example, defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh wearing an old Lions logo on his jersey (it's only been four years since they introduced the new one, after all), but I'm having a very hard time working up that level of enthusiasm for this game. Out of all the All-Star Games, this is the one that seems the most pointless given the level of competition and the number of stars who find a reason to be elsewhere that day.

I'm far from the first person to say so, but it's time to find a new way to honor these players without making them go through the motions of half-heartedly playing a meaningless game; maybe another awards ceremony, this time in Hawaii?