3 Ways to liven up the NFL Pro Bowl

With the 2010 NFL Pro Bowl less than an hour away, I have some suggestions for commissioner Roger Goodell on how to make the game and weekend more fan friendly:

• Make player participation mandatory. That means any player that is healthy enough to play in his team's final game, and so happens to be elected to the Pro Bowl, is also healthy enough to play in the Pro Bowl. The fans are not paying more than they would during the regular season to see second rate talent. So, for example, Tom Brady was able to play the entire game in the Patriots loss to Baltimore during the wild card round of the AFC Playoffs. Then there should be no reason why he can't take a few snaps under center for the Pro Bowl either. We're not talking an entire game, and we all know they players are not going 100% on every play anyway.
• Going for two should also be mandatory. Sorry placekickers, but the extra point has to be the most boring play in all of football. If you really want to get in the game, try lobbying the head coach to kick a field goal on third and long inside the thirty and let me know how that works out. But I would like to see the coaches' strategies once they know the conversion after the touchdown is not automatic.
• Finally, the NFL should create a contest in which the winner gets to call an entire offensive or defensive series for the AFC or NFC. Just winning tickets to the Pro Bowl has become so passe. Make one lucky fan part of the game and now we're talking. Plus, it would be a great way to show us monday morning quarterbacks how difficult it really is to devise a winning game plan.