Carson Palmer has to decline a Pro Bowl invitation because of injury

by Josh Kirkendall on Jan 22, 2010 10:58 AM EST in Awards

With Peyton Manning playing the AFC Championship game this weekend, possibly heading to the Super Bowl in Miami, the AFC Roster of quarterbacks thins out considerably behind him. Tom Brady and Phillip Rivers were originally voted into the Pro Bowl, but pulled out citing injury.

Replacing Tom Brady was Ben Roethlisberger, who turned down the Pro Bowl offer because of a shoulder injury. So they turned to Matt Schaub. Replacing Philip Rivers would have gone to Carson Palmer, who also had to decline because of a recent procedure to repair his injured thumb. Instead, Vince Young, recording an 8-2 record in the 10 games he started, gets the call. And most likely, if Manning goes the Super Bowl, the Pro Bowl would invite a fifth alternate at quarterback.

Yikes. This goes from an All-Star game to the game with some All-Stars who aren't playing in the Super Bowl. For example, if the Vikings and Colts go the Super Bowl, the Pro Bowl will have to find 16 replacements. While it's nice to have the Pro Bowl a week before the Super Bowl, if you can't field your All-Stars in the All-Star game, what's the point?

But the key point here is that since Palmer was the third alternate, he would have gotten the call to replace Rivers, giving him a third Pro Bowl honor in his career. Considering the pedestrian season he had, plus the amount of injuries at quarterback and putting the Pro Bowl a week before the Super Bowl essentially knocking out most of the talent from both teams leagues, that's not bad. Therefore, the quote of the day goes to Joe Reedy.

No word yet where former Bengal and current Bill Ryan Fitzpatrick or Cleveland’s Derek Anderson are on the list of alternates.

Nice.

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So if, say, VY had an escalator clause in his contract for making a pro bowl, would this debacle trigger it? That doesn’t seem right.

by Todd G on Jan 22, 2010 11:09 AM EST reply actions

Why not? He made it. Doesn’t matter that half the rest of the league had to get injured first.

Besides, if you compare week to week his performance vs, say, Rothlisberger or Palmer, he did pretty well comparatively. He only was behind them in the alternate list due to basically three reasons: 1) lack of popularity among fans, 2) lack of seniority, 3) not playing the whole year.

by FriarBob on Jan 22, 2010 11:53 AM EST up reply actions

You make a compelling argument specific to this instance, but it still seems to me that the league moving the actual event to precede the super bowl is going to have quite an adverse effect on an invitation’s prestige as an honor on a player’s resume. I mean, I know player’s dropped out before, but it seems way more rampant this year.

by Todd G on Jan 22, 2010 12:10 PM EST up reply actions

Could be. Could also be there were just more injuries this year. Or at least more injuries that couldn’t heal up (enough) with a month or so off.

by FriarBob on Jan 22, 2010 1:36 PM EST up reply actions

Agree

Not really sure what the NFL thought was going to happen. It’s inevitable that the set of Pro-Bowlers will overlap with teams still in the playoffs and then there is the set of players that get injured that aren’t going to play because they simply can’t or had a procedure done right after their season ended in order to be ready for next year. The Pro Bowl nod just is not a priority for these guys, despite the league trying to force it into relevance by moving it up. Smh.

by BigBengal9 on Jan 22, 2010 2:50 PM EST up reply actions

RE:

Also consider that the Pro Bowl was typically another few weeks away, allowing players more time to recover to play in the exhibition. Then you wonder if guys like Philip Rivers (who JUST lost the playoff game and probably pissed about it) or Big Ben could have played in the Pro Bowl with a little time to heal.

Blogger at CincyJungle.com -- SB Nation Cincinnati Bengals blog.

by Josh Kirkendall on Jan 22, 2010 4:15 PM EST up reply actions