Compared to the Super Bowl, the NFL Pro Bowl is relatively uncelebrated. But its appeal comes from its singularity as the all-star game of the NFL. It is a faceoff between the league’s elite where teams and records are forgotten–everything rests on a player’s individual skill. The 2016 Pro Bowl was held at the University of Hawaii in Honolulu on January 31, a week before the Super Bowl. Team Irvin devoured Team Rice with a final score of 49-27.

Up through 2013, the game was known as the NFC-AFC Pro Bowl, in which the top players from each conference faced off against each other. However, in 2014, a new unconferenced format was introduced in which league players are voted into a single combined draft pool. Votes are cast by coaches, players, and of course fans, who vote online at the NFL website. Each group’s ballots count as a third of the votes. Once the draft pool has been formed, two retired Hall of Famers are chosen as honorary team captains, who then proceed to choose their teams from the draft pool.

This year’s captains were former wide receivers Michael Irvin and Jerry Rice. Irvin played twelve seasons with the Dallas Cowboys from 1988 to 1999, including three Super Bowl appearances, two of which they won. Jerry Rice played from 1985 to 2000 with the San Francisco 49ers, with whom he won four Super Bowls, and then with the Oakland Raiders from 2001 to 2004. Rice and Irvin picked teams on January 27, leaving the coaching responsibilities on other shoulders. Team Irvin was coached by the Green Bay Packers assistant head coach Winston Moss, while the Kansas City Chiefs’ Andy Reid coached Team Rice.

Irvin’s lineup included Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson, who only played the first half but threw three touchdown passes and was voted the game’s offensive MVP. He went 8 for 12 and amassed 164 yards in two quarters. Defensive end Michael Bennett, Wilson’s teammate both in Seattle and on Team Irvin, was chosen as the defensive MVP after scoring the game’s only sack and a deflection.

Rice’s quarterback, Derek Carr from the Raiders, seemed out of sync with his unfamiliar teammates. The Team Irvin defense, spearheaded by the heroically disruptive Michael Bennett, laid waste to his line and forced him to resort to Plan B, then Plan C, and then Plan D. Carr had a fantastic regular season this year, setting career highs in completions (350), passing yards (3,987) and passer rating (91.
1). But Carr’s two seasons in the NFL couldn’t match up to Wilson’s four. Wilson threw 34 touchdowns to eight interceptions this season, passing a total of 4,024 yards and earning a passer rating of 110.1. Ultimately, there was little competition.
Keeping the risk of injury in mind, players whose teams are going to the Super Bowl are not allowed to play in the Pro Bowl the week before, and are replaced. Four players from the Denver Broncos and ten from the Carolina Panthers, including Cam Newton, were selected to play in the Pro Bowl this year, but had to forgo the opportunity. Cam Newton was replaced by Derek Carr, who clearly couldn’t handle the explosive Russell Wilson. There has been much speculation among the sports community around whether the more experienced Newton could have done what Carr could not.