One thing that's always driven me nuts about baseball's All Star Game is that it only accounts for the all stars through the first half of their respective season. Well so-and-so is a 10-time all star, so it means he must be good. True. But you're really pointing out performances based on an award that accounts for only half of a season. Did he completely stumble in the second half of the season, generate little to no production during his team's playoff run? It applies to the NBA and NHL as well. And let's not get started about the All Star game being fabricated to have false meaning by awarding the winning league with home-field advantage in the World Series.
Unlike other professional sports, the NFL hosts their All Star game at the end of the season, which in the past has been a week after the Super Bowl. Generally speaking, once the Super Bowl is over, general interest in the NFL wanes, even more so for players that aren't willing to risk an injury for an exhibition game that leads into the offseason -- and who can blame them? The league tried to push the Pro Bowl before the Super Bowl. Considering that many players in the Super Bowl are on both rosters, and considering the minimal down time for players from other playoff teams, recognizable players for your average NFL fan (the people that still say Whose-your-momma as if genuinely thinking they're funny) dwindles [note: we will ban members that write whose-your-momma in the comments].
But that doesn't mean you can't vote for the NFL Pro Bowl, with balloting opening today! (that was probably the worst introduction for something like an all star vote, huh?)
Make sure to vote for Bengals players as much as you can. If they're going to give us the technology and the ability to spam the NFL.com ballots with Bengals players, I say we take advantage of that. Though we have to admit that the fan vote is somewhat pointless, considering that the leading vote getter at offensive tackle, Andrew Whitworth, wasn't voted in when the coaches and players votes were tallied. Oh well. It's up to us to make sure the fan voice is heard to get Whitworth back into conversation.