ESPN, along with many beer and pizza companies, used commercials to market the Pro Bowl as “your last chance” or “one last time” to watch football this year.

However, football ends for most people (including me) after the Super Bowl. I hate the Pro-Bowl. It's the worst professional sports All-Star game out there. Don’t get me wrong; football is the greatest sport we have, but when it comes to All-Star games the other leagues get it right.

I don’t care for the NBA; if I watch basketball it is going to be college level. I do make two exceptions to my anti-NBA stance though; the All-Star game and the NBA finals. The NBA All-Star game has it all: the slam-dunk contest, with or without the best dunkers in the league, is the second greatest All-Star event next to the home run derby. The three-point shootout is always exciting to watch, the new skills challenges are fun, the only thing that isn't worth watching is the shooting contest with NBA and WNBA stars just because the NBA stars are trying not to laugh at their partners.

The NBA All-Star game is high-scoring, fast-paced, with amazing alley-oops, dunks, passes, shots, and the occasional shot block.  Even though the NBA is my least favorite league, it has consistently provided the most entertaining All-Star games for me.

Major League Baseball, on the other hand, has the single greatest spectacle in sports. The home run derby is the most amazing display of power in athletics, hands down. Watching ball after ball go sailing out of the outfield and landing 450 feet from where it was hit is an amazing sight to see. Just playing home run derby with my friends and a wiffle ball is awesome, but watching pros do it makes it a legendary event.

Baseball's All-Star game itself is not as good as the NBA’s but still far exceeds the level of excitement provided by the Pro Bowl. Two years ago at Minute Maid Park in Houston, Roger Clemens was the most dominant pitcher in the league. Manny Ramirez, along with the other sluggers from the AL, teed off on Clemens and the NL was forced to try and play catch up the rest of the game. The MLB has walk-off home runs and hits to win games. If the game is close going into the 7^th inning on, it is almost a guarantee the game will be a great finish, with exception of the All-Star game in Milwaukee, which ended in a tie.

The Pro Bowl, on the other hand, is just boring. The pre-game festivities for the players to showcase their talents often take me back to the hellish two-a-days we had in high school. I certainly am not as fast, strong, or athletic as the NFL superstars are, but I can catch a football, run through an obstacle course, lift weights, and throw a ball. Like I said, not at the same level, but I can do them all efficiently.

The real reason I do not care for the Pro Bowl is the overall boredom I experience when I watch the game. Unlike baseball and basketball, where the All-Star game is in the middle of the season, football's day to honor its immortals is not only at the end of the season, but after the playoffs, when a good number of the participants have not even played football for 5 or 6 weeks. I do not advocate an All-Star game halfway through the season; it would be foolish to risk injury for a meaningless game, where the winners receive just $40,000 and the losers $20,000. That's just part of what makes the Pro Bowl crappy. And if you were not going to risk mid-season injury, why would you risk off-season injury as well? Any pro athlete loves to compete, so they will take the game seriously, but often times there does not seem to be the same intensity in the game because no one wants to pull a Charlie Hustle and seriously injure anyone. Once again, that is what makes the NFL so great, the fearless mindset of the players who throw their bodies around to make plays.

Finally, in all my years of watching the Pro Bowl I remember one high-scoring game that came down to the last minute. Perhaps there were many more that I can't remember (either because I was drunk or just lost interest and was flipping back and forth with different programs) but the 2004 game, which featured a ferocious comeback by the NFC, led by defensive touchdown returns and the passing attack of the game's MVP Marc Bulger was a thing of beauty. The game was nearly sent to overtime, but the inevitable brilliance of Colts kicker Mike Vanderjagt, who did not miss a kick all year, pushed his field goal wide and the NFC, won 55-52. A nice preview of things to come this year.

I can not expect every game to go down to the wire, but I have become accustomed to the NFL putting me an a euphoric state of mind every Sunday, and it just makes me a little melancholy to know I would rather watch the NBA All-Star game than the last game of the season for my beloved NFL.