As Pro Bowl participants potentially injure themselves trying to avoid getting injuries in a meaningless football game by citing injuries that didn’t otherwise keep them from playing in meaningful games, it’s just a matter of time before Patriots quarterback Tom Brady joins the list of players who won’t be going to Hawaii.
On a day that already has seen Carson Palmer and Philip Rivers join Cam Newton and Ben Roethlisberger and Aaron Rodgers as Pro Bowl quarterbacks who won’t be at the Pro Bowl, Brady almost certainly will make it No. 6.
Long-time NFL P.R. executive Joe Browne mentioned on Twitter after Sunday’s loss by the Patriots in Denver that Super Bowl 50’s loss is now the Pro Bowl’s gain, given that Brady will be available to play. And I responded by saying that I’d bet everything I owned that Brady won’t be there.
Appearing on PFT Live on NBC Sports Radio, Vic Lombardi of Altitude Sports in Denver said he’d get a Tom Brady face tattoo if Brady shows up for the game. Unfortunately, Lombardi would only agree to a temporary tattoo.
Temporary ink, permanent ink, or an engraving onto Lombardi’s cheekbone, it won’t matter. The Pro Bowl is a league event, and the last thing Brady would do is help out a league that still wants to sit him down for four games other than the Pro Bowl. Even without the lingering stink of #DeflateGate, Brady wouldn’t be showing up for the league’s annual all-star game.
The way the NFL handled the situation will only make him more determined to not accept a free trip to Hawaii in return for putting himself at risk of injury under circumstances that mean nothing to his broader goal of chasing a fifth championship. And then a sixth.
So keep that list out, NFL. You’re going to need another next man up to take Brady’s place on the Pro Bowl roster.
And once it happens, only one of the original six quarterbacks who made the team will be left: Russell Wilson.
