Commentary

FBO: Pro Bowl snubs and mistakes

Shouldn't board the plane: DeAngelo Williams; should be there: Leon Hall

Updated: January 31, 2010, 9:27 AM ET

By Bill Barnwell | Football Outsiders

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Why does this weekend's Pro Bowl matter to players? It's not the competition itself, considering how many of them find excuses to bail with injuries. It's cash. Plenty of players have Pro Bowl bonuses built into their contracts, padding their wallet with a nice postseason bonus. It's not chump change, either; as an example, Julius Peppers will pocket $1.5 million for his trip to Miami, adding to more than $5 million in Pro Bowl bonuses he's accrued during his career. Even if a player doesn't have a Pro Bowl clause in his contract, it's easier for an agent to sell a Pro Bowler to a team in free agency than to sell an underrated player.

While the recognition of players and fans is nice, getting hit in the wallet hurts more. So with the Pro Bowl only days away, we've compiled a list of the players who deserved to make it to South Florida and the ones who should be staying home.

Since injury and Super Bowl replacements have led to an influx of average players such as David Garrard and Johnny Knox, our list of undeserving players is limited to players named to the initial team, while our snubs include five players who somehow are still unselected despite the avalanche of roster changes.

There are five in each category here. If you think about it, Miami in late January is a pretty cool trip, no? (Especially if you can't make the Super Bowl.) So … who got a good deal and who got a raw one? Names that will be mentioned: Leon Hall, Bryant McKinnie, Tamba Hali (who?) and more. To find out where they fall, you must be an ESPN Insider.