A week before festivities prepare to commence in Dallas, the 2011 NFL Pro Bowl kicked off at Aloha Stadium in Hawaii, whether you’re watched or not.

   The Pro Bowl is a game that takes place once a season in which the leagues brightest stars are compiled for an “All-Star” match. The concept looks great on paper, yet every year the Pro Bowl goes widely unwatched. In past years, people linked this to the fact that the game used to take place after the NFL Season was over. However in an effort to gain more viewers the NFL has decided to place it a week prior to the league’s championship game for the second consecutive season.

 Surely this will bring in a larger crowd then prior years, but problems arise with it. The most glaring problem would be that in a game that is supposed to showcase the leagues best players, the stars from the two best teams of the regular and post season are unable to compete.

As a result, nine replacements are selected to take the open slots. Replacements, unlike their fan-voted counterparts, are selected by the league and placed in the game. Now this may not seem like a big deal to some, but in the grand scheme of things it really makes no sense.

Taking part in the Pro Bowl should mean something. It should mean that you, as an individual, were the leagues best at your position according to the fans. What I’m trying to get at is, in 30 years all nine of those Super Bowl players will have one less pro bowl game on their “brag sheet,” and nine people who didn’t truly deserve the honor will have one more.

It won’t be taken into account that the Packers and the Steelers were preparing for the Super Bowl. Even if the Packers’ star wide-receiver Greg Jennings had put the team on his back for an entire season, making it to the Super Bowl will prevent him from earning the honor of playing in the Pro Bowl.

The game itself is virtually pointless.

What is Michael Vick throwing a downfield pass into the waiting hands of Calvin “Megatron” Johnson if not entertainment? But I guess if someone wanted to watch a bunch of oversized men dance around and gloat for no reason they can also always watch MTV’s Jersey Shore for that. There’s a brilliant marketing move, Ronnie and Pauly D as replacements for 2012. After all, in the Pro Bowl it doesn’t matter if you win or lose as long as you look good.