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In its new role as a warmup to the Super Bowl, the Pro Bowl became a series of wind sprints.

Long gains were the rule and hard hitting was the exception as the AFC beat the NFC 41-34 on Sunday night.

Light showers fell for much of the game, stirring memories of a rainy Super Bowl in Miami three years ago. But uniforms remained mostly spotless, with more pushing and shoving than tackling.

Matt Schaub of the Houston Texans threw for 189 yards and two AFC scores, and was chosen the most valuable player.

“This is a game you watch as a kid and you hope to be able to play in,” Schaub said.

Aaron Rodgers also threw two touchdown passes, and NFC teammate DeSean Jackson had two scoring catches.

From the standpoint of ticket sales, this year’s new venue and slot on the league calendar was a success. The crowd of 70,697 was the largest for a Pro Bowl since 1959 in Los Angeles.

Spectators included Peyton Manning, Drew Brees and other Pro Bowl players from the Super Bowl teams. Manning and the Indianapolis Colts will face Brees and the New Orleans Saints on the same field next Sunday in the biggest game of the season.

The NFL sought to transform the Pro Bowl into a bigger game by playing it before the Super Bowl for the first time. In a one-year experiment, the league also moved the game from Honolulu, its home since 1980.

The stadium was half empty by the third quarter, perhaps partly because of the rain and temperatures around 60 degrees. It was sunny and 80 degrees in Honolulu at game time.

Did the weather dampen the players’ enthusiasm for Miami?

“It’s beautiful. It’s paradise,” NFC receiver Steve Smith said. “Too bad it’s not Hawaii.”

Eager to host more big events, the Dolphins have proposed adding a roof that would cover fans as part of stadium improvements that could cost US$250 million or more. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell says the upgrades are needed if South Florida is to remain competitive in bidding for future Super Bowls.

Nearly 40 percent of the players originally selected for the game didn’t play. One of the AFC replacements, David Garrard, threw for 183 yards, including a 48-yard touchdown to Vincent Jackson.

“It’s so awesome,” Garrard said. “One of my goals coming into the game was to just be relevant and show all the people who said, ‘What is he doing in there? The Pro Bowl has dropped off a few pegs,’ that I do belong.”

Vincent Jackson made seven catches for 122 yards. Chad Ochocinco had a 40-yard reception but didn’t do any kicking after practicing placements and punts for the AFC during the week.

“That’s OK. It was fun anyway,” Ochocinco said.

DeSean Jackson scored on a seven-yard pass from Rodgers and a 58-yard pass from Donovan McNabb, his regular quarterback with the Eagles.

“I’m just out here having a great time,” Jackson said. “And at the same time I’m trying to put out a little effort.”

There were plenty of other big plays. Joshua Cribbs caught a punt at the goal-line and returned it 65 yards. A penalty negated LaMarr Woodley’s 64-interception return for a touchdown.

“I slowed up to get a little camera time,” Woodley said.

The AFC totalled 517 yards and the NFC 470. Both teams threw for more than 400 yards.

Redskins linebacker London Fletcher, a 12-year veteran playing in his first Pro Bowl, found the AFC’s offensive approach exhausting.

“They came out with a bunch of screens and had us running around,” Fletcher said.

But there were no complaints from Fletcher’s teammate on defense, first-time Pro Bowler Justin Smith of the 49ers.

“The pace is nice,” Smith said. “You don’t have to worry about working too hard.”

The game will return to Honolulu in 2011 and 2012, but the league hasn’t decided whether to hold those games before or after the Super Bowl. The Pro Bowl site for 2013 and beyond hasn’t been determined.

Matt Field
TenYards.com Sports Editor

Minnesota Vikings offensive tackle Bryant McKinnie has reportedly been kicked off the NFC team at the Pro Bowl after missing a majority of team practices and meetings.

According to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, McKinnie attended only one practice and one meeting all week and is subject to a fine from the league.

McKinnie, who started all 16 games on the Vikings’ offensive line in 2009, was making his first Pro Bowl appearance in his eighth NFL season.

Matt Field
TenYards.com Sports Editor

Peyton Manning can play mind games all day.

In the battle of brains that gets played out on a football field, the Indianapolis Colts’ quarterback usually comes out on top.

His relentless thirst for knowledge, his passion to know opponents better than they know themselves and his uncanny ability to recall crucial details in split seconds have many NFL observers wondering how, exactly, does Manning’s mind work?

“It’s quite confusing,” Colts receiver Reggie Wayne jokingly said this week. “It’s something that whenever his mind starts to go, I’m trying to get as far away from him as I possibly can. Just tell me the end result, that’s all I need to know.”

If only it were that easy for the four-time league MVP.

Though Manning has been labelled everything from the smartest quarterback in league history to the most creative, he’s going to his second Super Bowl in Miami for one reason: Nothing is left to chance.

His normal work week consists of spending countless hours breaking down film at home or in the team complex, taking notes about anything that could give him an edge. He spends extra time working with young receivers Austin Collie, a rookie, and Pierre Garcon, now in his second year, teaching them how to study properly.

That’s only the start.

On game day, Manning spends time on the sideline studying photographs, refining routes, discussing protections and countering the adjustments defenses make to confuse him.

Sometimes Manning needs time to figure things out. When he does, it’s a game-changer.

Just ask the New York Jets, who kept the Colts’ offence in check for much of the first half of Sunday’s AFC championship game. Then after a brief discussion with Garcon, Manning altered a few things and the Colts responded with TDs on three of their next four possessions. Final score: Indy 30, New York 17.

Garcon caught 11 passes for 151 yards, both career-highs, and one TD — the score that put Indianapolis ahead for good.

Manning insists he doesn’t know it all.

“I don’t know if I ever figure them out, I’ll say that,” he said. “They (defenses) can change anytime, I’m always aware of that. You have to prepare for the unexpected. The main thing you want to do is try to be good at what you’re doing.”

There’s no question Manning has become the master of preparation.

Though most players refer to opponents or teammates by jersey numbers, Manning remembers seemingly everything. He routinely calls players by first or last name, or both. He recalls other NFL teams his opponents played for, their previous head-to-head matches, mistakes he’s made against those guys, which colleges they attended and even, occasionally, a player’s high school information — without ever glancing at a media guide or TelePrompter.

It’s a gift.

“He has the ability to remember almost everything he sees and hears,” coach Jim Caldwell said. “He not only can take that information in, but he can also regurgitate it, and not only that, he can utilize it. The other level is being able to apply it when you need it, and he can do all of those things and he can do those things in the heat of the battle, under pressure, with the game on the line. That’s what makes him so very unusual.”

If Manning can do all that in a game, imagine what he can do with two weeks to study the Saints (15-3).

He has faced his father’s old team four times since Indianapolis made him the No. 1 draft pick in 1998, with a 2-2 record. In the three games he’s played against New Orleans since his rookie season, Manning is 56 of 83 for 864 yards with 10 TDs, six in the 2003 game, and one interception. Manning hasn’t lost to the Saints in a season that the Colts posted a winning record and now he has two weeks to sift through their schemes.

“An extra weekend is not good,” Wayne said. “If we were going into this game saying we were going to get our game plan done this week and not add anything else after, it wouldn’t be possible. I can guarantee you we’ll come in on Sunday and we’ll have an addition to our game plan. … It’s been that way for nine years for me. It’s never finalized.”

Clearly, Manning embraces a battle of the wits.

And if the Super Bowl becomes a mind game, well, the Colts like their chances.

“What’s the saying, ‘A good chess player can see 10 moves ahead?’ I think that’s exactly what it is,” linebacker Gary Brackett said. “It’s like ‘If we do this, they’re going to do this. If they do this, I’m going to do this.’ Thinking that step ahead and being already on to the next one when they break up a pass. He and Reggie are great at that. Reggie just throws up the hand, Peyton knows exactly where to go.”

Matt Field
TenYards.com Sports Editor

Robert Johnson from Mission Viejo High School in California has been chosen the NFL’s high school football coach of the year.

Johnson will receive $5,000 and a trip to the Super Bowl, and a $10,000 grant from the NFL Youth Football Fund will be awarded to his school’s football program.

The award was announced Thursday.

Johnson was nominated by Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez and Seahawks defensive end Nick Reed. He was picked from a pool of nominations that came from more than 75 NFL players.

The high school coach of the year award was created in 1995 to honor coaches who made a positive impact on the athletic and personal development of NFL players.

Matt Field
TenYards.com Sports Editor

Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kurt Warner will reportedly discuss his playing future at a news conference on Friday.

The Cardinals have not announced anything official, but the Arizona Republic cited Warner’s agent as saying the press conference would probably be held Friday at the team’s training facility.

After Arizona’s season ended in a loss to New Orleans in the divisional playoffs, many have speculated that Warner will call it quits after a 12-year career that included a pair of MVP awards and three Super Bowl appearances, with one NFL title.

Warner has spent the past five seasons with Arizona, leading the beleaguered franchise to its first Super Bowl appearance after the 2008 campaign. The Cardinals nearly pulled off a victory last February, dropping a last-minute 27-23 decision to the Pittsburgh Steelers.

In 2009, Warner started 15 games and missed one after suffering symptoms of a concussion. He also took a vicious shot in the divisional playoff game at New Orleans, when Saints defensive end Bobby McCray delivered a hit to an unsuspecting Warner after he had thrown an interception late in the first half of the 45-14 loss.

Warner is still at the top of his game, as he completed 66.1 percent of his passes for 3,753 yards with 26 touchdowns and 14 interceptions for the NFC West champs this season. Last year, he threw for 4,583 yards with 30 touchdowns and 14 picks.

The 38-year-old four-time Pro Bowl selection has thrown for 32,344 yards with 208 touchdowns and 128 interceptions in his career with the Rams, Giants and Cardinals.

A former Arena Football star, Warner first gained notoriety during the 1999 season with St. Louis when he inherited the starter’s role after Trent Green was injured during the preseason.

Warner proceeded to lead the Rams to their first Super Bowl victory, winning his first MVP award after throwing for 4,353 yards with 41 touchdowns and 13 interceptions. He also garnered Super Bowl MVP honors after leading the Rams to a 23-16 win over Tennessee.

Another MVP season in 2001 led to another St. Louis Super Bowl appearance, but this time the heavily-favored Rams were beaten by the New England Patriots.

Warner has the three best passing days in Super Bowl history — a record 414 yards against the Titans, 377 last year against the Steelers and 365 against the Patriots. His 1,156 career passing yards are the most in Super Bowl history — surpassing Joe Montana’s previous mark of 1,142.

After playing a combined nine games during injury-filled seasons of 2002 and 2003 with the Rams, Warner landed with the New York Giants in 2004 and began the season as the starter. He held that position, starting nine of the 10 games he played, until current Giants star Eli Manning was ready.

The move to Arizona followed the next season and he started 10 games in 2005. Another hot-shot rookie entered the fold in 2006, as Warner had to battle Matt Leinart for playing time.

After starting just five games in ‘06, Warner wrestled the job away from Leinart in 2007 and led the Cardinals to heights they’d never before seen.

Leinart, the former Heisman Trophy winner from Southern California, would appear to be the front-runner to take over the starter’s duties in 2010 in Warner’s apparent absence.

Matt Field
TenYards.com Sports Editor

One after another, the Minnesota Vikings mentioned how much they enjoyed playing with Brett Favre.

Will the fun will be one season and done?

The devastated Vikings gathered Monday at their practice facility for exit physicals and meetings with coaches, two weeks sooner than they hoped thanks to that epic overtime loss in New Orleans for the NFC championship.

Despite all the other intriguing in-game developments and off-season story lines, the day-after focus fell on the 40-year-old Favre’s future. He didn’t appear in the locker-room at Winter Park while it was open to reporters, but his demeanour after the game and responses from teammates suggested he’s leaning toward quitting.

For now.

“In a situation like this I really don’t want to make a decision right now based on what’s happened, because I do know the year could not have gone any better aside from us not going to Miami,” Favre said Sunday night at the Superdome. “I really enjoyed it, to be honest. Just wondering if I can hold up, especially after a day like today.”

He took a beating by the Saints, and the ankle injury he suffered in the third quarter was another reminder of how draining the game has been for him mentally and physically down the stretch of his 19-year career.

“From a physical standpoint I feel for him, but definitely mentally and emotionally as he always does he lays it on the line and gave it everything he had,” linebacker Ben Leber said. “I truly wish we could have him back next year, but that will be his decision.”

Leber sounded resigned to losing Favre to retirement, though the NFL’s all-time leading passer is so famously prone to waffling over his decision he could always find a renewed desire to return for more after a break from the grind.

“It’s still early. Way too early. Brett is liable to change his mind five, 10 times down the road,” wide receiver Bernard Berrian said. “He already knows that we want him back. It’s more or less letting him go off and do his thing.”

Without prompting, player after player brought up how fun Favre was to play with. Respectfully, they declined to speculate about his decision, but the consensus was that he can take all the time he needs even if it means skipping training camp again.

The Vikings are still searching for that elusive Super Bowl victory, but this was as close as they’ve come in 11 years. With one of his best seasons, Favre was a major part of that.

“I just hope he’s with us next season,” centre John Sullivan said. “Whatever schedule he needs to be on to do that is just fine with me.”

Linebacker Chad Greenway was one player who publicly questioned last spring whether the pursuit of Favre was worth it.

“He deserves the right to relax and enjoy himself now. He had an unbelievable year,” Greenway said. “He fights to the end. As much respect as I had for him before the season, I have 10 times that now, with the chance to play with him and the way he handles himself.”

On the plane home from New Orleans, Favre and kicker Ryan Longwell reflected on their careers together, nine years together in Green Bay and now this once-unfathomable union in Minnesota.

“It was a pleasure to see him play the way he did this year, because he shut a lot of people up and I’m proud of him for that,” Longwell said. “You know that he loved the guys in this locker room. It was instant. The second he got here there was a huge bond, and it just kept growing and kept growing and that’s why it was so sad the way it ended the way it did.”

Unfortunately for the Vikings, Favre’s habit of forcing risky throws was revealed at the most critical time. His on-the-run interception on third down cost Longwell a chance to try a long field goal for the win late in the fourth quarter, and the Vikings never touched the ball after losing the coin toss.

Longwell said he believes Favre has already made up his mind about next season.

“I will be one of the ones trying to convince him, but at the same time he’s put in numerous years,” said rookie wide receiver Percy Harvin, who called his relationship with Favre brother-like. “I don’t know how much of a beating a man can take, but we’ll see.”

Favre was widely viewed as Minnesota’s missing piece, and the challenge of consistently assembling a legitimate championship contender in this league contributed to the pain.

If he retires, the quarterback position will become as unsettled as it was before, though the offense boasts several young stars. Defensive stalwarts Pat Williams and Antoine Winfield are aging, and linebacker E.J. Henderson’s status is uncertain after a badly broken leg.

“We had a great opportunity with the guys that we had, the chemistry, the coaches, everything,” Leber said. “Even look at the game. We put up 475 yards of offence to their 250 or something. So, certainly there are some missed opportunities and I think that’s why the loss is just so hard to take.”

Matt Field
TenYards.com Sports Editor

Sean Payton still hadn’t gone home yet when the New Orleans Saints returned to work the day after the biggest win in franchise history.

Drained after an emotional overtime triumph that set off celebrations all across the city, Payton joined family and friends for dinner downtown and then relaxed in a hotel.

“There was just so much emotion,” Payton said Monday at the team’s suburban training center. “You know, when you finish with the locker-room … you just try to find your family. My son’s concern is the confetti’s going to keep us from being able to play catch on the field. That was his concern. It was just good to hug them and be around the family and enjoy the time. There never seems to be enough of it.

“For them to have a chance to be part of it I think it makes it really special,” Payton continued. “Obviously, the same goes for this upcoming game.”

The upcoming game happens to be the first Super Bowl involving the Saints in the franchise’s 43 years of existence.

This is only the ninth winning season the club has had. The 31-28 overtime victory over Minnesota on Sunday night marked the first time the Saints had hosted an NFC championship game. So when it was over, fans in the Louisiana Superdome and residents of a city that already acts on any excuse for a party spilled into the streets and toasted the Saints’ success.

Bourbon Street was mobbed with revellers in Saints jerseys letting out high-pitched howls of delight and stirring up impromptu chants of “Who dat say dey gonna’ beat dem Saints!”

Some exchanged watery-eyed embraces after watching their team pull out a high-stakes thriller that appeared to be going the Vikings’ way before Tracy Porter intercepted Brett Favre’s pass in Saints territory in the last minute of regulation.

“It was crazy. It was almost like Mardi Gras,” said Porter, who would know because he grew up in south Louisiana.

A number of players, including Porter and fellow defensive back Darren Sharper, said they wanted to go out on the town and join in the celebration, but were so tired they ended up just staying home and watching footage of the citywide party on the local news.

“When I got outside this morning, I saw the city was still standing so that was a good thing,” Sharper said. “I didn’t get a chance to go out and celebrate last night because I was a little bit too sore to enjoy myself. I couldn’t have been celebrating if I couldn’t move my head to see who was around me.”

Saints defensive players were bound to be exhausted and sore. The Vikings had the ball for nearly 37 minutes and ran 82 offensive plays to the Saints’ 55, including overtime, when only the Saints had the ball and ran 10 plays on their winning drive, which was capped by Garrett Hartley field goal.

Hartley wasn’t about to live a young kicker’s dream without celebrating a little. He joined friends and stayed downtown for a while, shaking hands with countless appreciative fans, many dressed in Saints-themed costumes.

“It was absolutely crazy. It was awesome,” Hartley said. “Everybody, from the way that they’re dressed to the way that they’re acting and just coming up to me and thanking me.”

The team gathered Monday for meetings, some light workouts and treatment for players who were banged up. Payton said there did not appear to be any serious injuries. He said kick returner Courtney Roby’s right knee was “dinged,” that running back Lynell Hamilton’s left ankle injury appeared minor and that tight end Jeremy Shockey did not have any setbacks with his bruised right knee.

Payton also gave players Tuesday and Wednesday off to rest before they return Thursday to prepare for the next biggest game in Saints history against native son Peyton Manning and the favoured Indianapolis Colts.

If the Saints pull off the upset, that will mark their third win of this post-season. In the previous 42 years, the Saints and their fans celebrated a grand total of two playoff victories.

“That’s a tough history to have,” Sharper said. “That’s part of the reason why they embrace it so much because they know it’s hard to come by. They’ve been through so many tough times and now, it’s a time for us to pretty much rejoice and appreciate us being at this point. We’re going to make the most of it, believe that.”

Matt Field
TenYards.com Sports Editor

If a baseball game goes into extra innings and one team scores a run in the top of the 10th, it doesn’t mean the game is over. 

If an NHL player scores on the first shot of the shootout, the other team still gets a crack at it. In fact, they’ll do it again twice more just for good measure.

So why is it that, if you can get the ball within about 45 yards or so of the opposing team’s uprights in the NFL on the very first drive of overtime, you can win the game or, in the most recent case, full-on end a team’s season just like that?

It’s hardly a new debate – in fact it’s been a favorite for many years now – but the discussion was certainly reignited again on Sunday when the New Orleans Saints moved the football 39 yards up the field and kicked a 40-yard field goal in overtime to clinch the NFC championship and move on to the Super Bowl.

To many fans of the game, it’s just not fair.

To be clear, this is not to say that the Saints didn’t deserve the victory or that the Vikings definitely would have stormed back the other way and thrown for a game winning touchdown. But some fans argue that just for the principle of the thing, didn’t they deserve the chance to at least try?

The way it’s set up right now it basically becomes one team’s offense versus the other team’s defense. Would it not be more fair for Brett Favre (or Hypothetical Quarterback X) to at least be allowed to try and make it to one of the biggest stages in sports? If he fails, so be it. Then you can know that each team got a shot and New Orleans was the one who proved to be better and pulled through.

For clarification, this corner had no personal preference towards either team advancing; the same argument would be made if the teams were flipped and Ryan Longwell had nailed a 40-yarder in OT to beat the Saints. It just comes down to seeing the best game possible under the most equal of circumstances.

Lots of football followers argue that the way the system is designed now is uneven, unfair and much less dramatic than it could be. Wouldn’t the league want to promote as much excitement as possible? Let’s say the Vikings had charged back and hit a field goal to tie things – imagine the emotional intensity ramping up as the two teams had to give it another go each.

Perhaps it’s just old-school traditionalists who insist on keeping the current rule, but it definitely seems like a lot of fans of the game are begging for change in this department (mainly the entire population of Minnesota right about now).

It’s not entirely fair to say, as some critics of the current system do, that these games come down to just a coin toss. Obviously there’s more to it than that – the team still has to follow through and put points on the board. They could easily go three and out and that would be that. But it’s hard to argue against giving each team a balanced opportunity to score. The coin toss that takes place at the beginning of the game merely determines who gets the ball first, but each team will still of course have their turns at scoring. Why does that suddenly change in overtime?

There are indeed arguments out there that the current system is perfectly acceptable. Defense is an important part of the game and some fans say that if a team’s defence can’t stop an opposing team from mounting a drive into the end zone, they deserve to be given the loss. After all, it could have just as easily gone the other way. Clearly it’s to a team’s disadvatage to lose the coin toss and have to defend with disastrous consequences if they fail, but proponents of defensive football claim that it’s a legitimate way to decide the game.

There are also those who argue that NHL overtime is actually the equivalent of this NFL rule. The other side says that’s an incorrect assumption; sure, in NHL overtime, the team that scores first wins the game. But it’s an entirely different animal; hockey is not a possession-based game where teams alternate designated tries at an objective. It’s a free-flowing sport where a game can end because of a beautiful breakaway goal or a weird bounce off a shin pad. Also, the opening faceoff in overtime takes place at center ice, where both teams have a completely equal chance at gaining the puck. The NHL equivalent of this current NFL rule would be if one team got to start with the puck behind their own net and rush, and if they scored they would win the game.

The NCAA and the CFL already work in the ideal way, according to supporters of equal-opportunity overtime; each team is given an equal number of possessions before the winner is determined. If the first team to have the ball scores and the second team doesn’t, it’s game over. If the first team doesn’t score and the second team does, then it’s game over. If both teams score, they do it again. But does it make any sense to have the first team score, say ‘Well, that’s that’ and just call it a day? A lot of people say no. 

No matter what your view on the subject, it’s true that no other sport does anything remotely like this. Is there anyone out there who thinks this overtime system is fair? Unfair? Can you explain the logic behind it and justify why it should or shouldn’t be changed?

Matt Field
TenYards.com Sports Editor

Quarterbacks Donovan McNabb of Philadelphia and David Garrard of Jacksonville were among the 14 players selected for this week’s Pro Bowl as replacements for the Pro Bowl members of the Super Bowl participants.

With the Pro Bowl being played before the Super Bowl this year, the Pro Bowl selections from the Indianapolis Colts and New Orleans Saints will not play in the league’s All-Star contest this year.

McNabb will replace New Orleans quarterback Drew Brees, while Garrard takes over for Indianapolis signal-caller Peyton Manning.

Six other players from the Colts and Saints needed to be replaced.

The AFC additions will be San Diego receiver Vincent Jackson, Pittsburgh tight end Heath Miller, Tennessee’s Kevin Mawae at center and Kyle Vanden Bosch at defensive end, New York Jets defensive end Shaun Ellis and Miami safety Yeremiah Bell.

On the NFC squad it will be New York Giants’ offensive linemen David Diehl and Chris Snee, Carolina center Ryan Kalil, Washington linebacker London Fletcher, Arizona safety Antrel Rolle and Philadelphia safety Quintin Mikell.

The other six Colts that will skip the Pro Bowl are wide receiver Reggie Wayne, tight end Dallas Clark, center Jeff Saturday, defensive ends Robert Mathis and Dwight Freeney and safety Antoine Bethea.

New Orleans’ other Pro Bowl selections are linemen Jon Stinchcomb, Jahri Evans and Jonathan Goodwin, linebacker Jonathan Vilma and safeties Darren Sharper and Roman Harper.

Matt Field
TenYards.com Sports Editor

Garrett Hartley’s 40-yard field goal 4:45 into overtime moved the Saints into the Super Bowl for the first time in franchise history, as they beat Minnesota, 31-28, in the NFC Championship Game.

The Saints will play Peyton Manning and the Colts in Super Bowl XLIV in Miami on February 7. Indianapolis beat the visiting New York Jets, 30-17, in the AFC title game earlier Sunday.

In what may have been Brett Favre’s last game in an NFL uniform, the 40-year- old future Hall of Famer couldn’t lead the Vikings to their first Super Bowl appearance since January 1977. Minnesota was hurt by five turnovers. Favre was picked off twice, including a costly interception with only seven seconds remaining in regulation after the Vikings drove into New Orleans territory. The Vikings also fumbled six times, losing three of them.

Matt Field
TenYards.com Sports Editor