I was thinking about what I am going to do this weekend with no real football games on television for the first time since August. And it occurred to me that the Pro Bowl is this weekend.

I probably should have remembered that because of all the announcements about players pulling out of the game. But for some reason it hadn’t registered. And that’s probably because I really couldn’t possibly care less about this game.

For one thing, even when the game is the week after the Super Bowl in Hawaii, there are a ton of front-line players who skip the game for injuries or “injuries.” Second, there are weird rules about blitzing and stuff like that, or at least there were back when I used to occasionally tune in to watch.

Finally, to make it even less interesting than normal, 14 players from the Colts and Saints are missing this year’s game because it is this week instead of the week following the Super Bowl – can you really seriously call it the Pro Bowl and not have any players from the Super Bowl participants in the game? The absentees this year will include the top three vote getters – Super Bowl quarterbacks Peyton Manning and Drew Brees, and oft-elected Brett Favre, who hasn’t actually played in the game in years.

I’d heard some theories tossed around about moving the game to August so it is played before the season rather than after. That probably wouldn’t make any difference to me – and I would think teams would be a little hinky about letting their best players suit up for an all-star game before the season starts.

I’m curious to hear our readers’ thoughts on this game. Do you usually watch? Will you this year because of the new venue or the placement of the game between the Super Bowl and the Championship games? Is there anything the league could do to get you interested in watching? Or should the NFL just consider canceling the game?