Stars On a Sunday Afternoon

Image by pxl:pshr via FlickrOn the Sunday before the Packers and Steelers meet in the Super Bowl, what was on TV?  You could have watched a rerun of the men's Australian Open tennis final on ESPN 2, unless you actually stayed up in the middle of the night to watch it live.  There was an NBA doubleheader on ABC featuring the same teams you'll be likely to see come playoff time (Heat-Thunder, Celtics-Lakers).  On CBS, it was the Farmers Insurance Open, where Bubba Watson held off a challenge by Phil Mickelson to win the PGA Tour event, with Tiger Woods nowhere in sight.

Or you could have been watching the NHL All-Star Game from Raleigh, North Carolina on Versus.  In the league's latest attempt to create interest in the game, having lost Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins to an injury, they ditched the usual East vs. West setup and let two team captains--Niklas Lidstrom of the Detroit Red Wings and Eric Staahl of the Carolina Hurricanes--pick the rosters as if this were a pickup game in gym class.

Team Lidstrom and Team Staahl (sounds like something out of the "Twilight" movies) then went out on the RBC Center ice and proceeded to score 21 goals as quickly and cleanly as possible (no checking, please), with Team Lidstrom winning the game 11-10.  This was not your typical NHL game.  It was a joke, set up for our entertainment as much as Don Cherry's outfits on "Coach's Corner".

After that game was over, it was time for the NFL Pro Bowl on Fox.  This is the only all-star game we know of that takes place after the regular season, so you have the spectacle of players who didn't make the Super Bowl suiting up for one last game in sunny Hawaii.  Like the NHL game, there's plenty of offense and hardly any defense. Can you feel the envy, football fans?

The only things about the game that were remotely memorable were that (A) the NFC scored 42 points in the first half on its way to a 55-35 win over the AFC, and (B) the Minnesota Vikings' Adrian Peterson scored his career record-setting fourth Pro Bowl touchdown.  By that time, you might have been more interested in "Ax Men" and "Pawn Stars" on History.

Even though these games were merely the appetizer to the big event next week, there are worse ways to spend a Sunday.