It pains me to say it, because as a child of the 90s/00s, Sean Taylor obliterating Brian Moorman remains one of the seminal moments of my teen years, but long gone are the days where the NFL Pro Bowl actually mattered.
There will be some folks out there who would say that the Pro Bowl, or any sort of All-Star Game for that matter, never truly matters, and with that, I can't argue, but let's just all agree, the Pro Bowl was better when A) There was an actual football game taking place with guys giving at least a 75% effort, and B) The game provided an accurate snapshot of who matter in a given year.
Unfortunately, neither of those things are necessarily true anymore. The Pro Bowl Game has been replaced by The Pro Bowl Games, which is a variety of skills challenges, dodgeball and flag football. Frankly, the loss of the game itself isn't even what bothers me the most. It's that for the most part, the rosters no longer provide that once-accurate snapshot. Case in point, Shedeur Sanders is a Pro Bowler this year. It's a sad day. Rome has officially fallen.
But here's one thing I will say: With defensive backs Jalen Ramsey and Christian Gonzalez giving up their Pro Bowl spots, Houston Texans defensive backs Kamari Lassiter and Calen Bullock are now officially Pro Bowlers, and frankly, they should've been even before two of their AFC counterparts bowed out. Along with Derek Stingley Jr. and Jalen Pitre, Lassiter and Bullock make up the best secondary in the NFL, and across the board, their numbers are indistinguishable.
How the 2025 seasons of Lassiter and Bullock -- and hey, what about Danielle Hunter -- weren't rewarded with a Pro Bowl nod from the beginning baffles me, but with their additions, the Texans now have six players who will be participating in the games: Stingley, Lassiter, Bullock, Azeez Al-Shaair, Nico Collins, and Will Anderson Jr.