The NFL Pro Bowlers might be letting up even more than usual on Sunday night.
The NFL tried to raise interest in the Pro Bowl by shaking up its rosters with a draft. Pro Football Hall of Famers Deion Sanders and Jerry Rice hand-selected the two teams, going back and forth in a draft on Tuesday and Wednesday night.
There’s one problem with the system, however — it’s forcing teammates to tackle one another. Players are concerned about injuring their teammates, according to the NFL Players Associations’ president Domonique Foxworth.
“That’s the only legitimate concern, and I completely understand it,” Foxworth told USA Today. “I was faced with the possibility of canceling the game or trying to make it interesting. If some of these conflicts that we create make it so we can’t go forward, then we’ll throw the game out.”
There are a number of offensive and defensive teammates that will be forced to go head to head. Kansas City Chiefs and Team Sanders running back Jamaal Charles has to face Chiefs and Team Rice linebackers Justin Houston and Derrick Johnson. Indianapolis Colts and Team Rice linebacker Robert Mathis could be forced to sack his own quarterback, Team Sanders’ Andrew Luck.
