10 NFL Players Who Never Should Have Made the Pro Bowl

The event, which began in 1951, used to be a great honor for those selected. Now, it’s a watered-down affair with no actual game and players not worthy of inclusion.

Gaston Green spent three years with the Rams as a backup. | Peter Brouillet-Imagn Images

The Pro Bowl has become a caricature of itself in recent years. 

In decades gone by (1951 to ’94), rosters were determined exclusively by players and coaches, and getting into the game was a huge honor. It meant being one of the best in the sport, and for years, it also meant a free trip for the players and their families to Honolulu. For the past 30 years, when fans were included in the voting process, the game has become meaningless, with a glorified scrimmage and no tackling. Last season, a staggering 104 players were named to the Pro Bowl, including Browns quarterback Shedeur Sanders, who threw seven touchdowns and 10 interceptions as a rookie.

While there have been all-time names populating Pro Bowl rosters since the game began in January of 1951, the recent watering down of the event brings up an interesting question:

Who are the players who never should have participated in the Pro Bowl?

After doing the research, we’ve come up with the ultimate player at each position (specialists not included, sorry guys).

The ground rules:

• We’re only considering the seasons post-1970 AFL-NFL merger;

• This is being judged off a player’s entire career, not a single season.

Let’s get to the players, starting under center.

Quarterback: Mike Boryla

Boryla played only 23 games (19 starts) throughout his career with the Eagles and Buccaneers before retiring in 1978 after five seasons. In his Pro Bowl year of 1975, Boryla threw six touchdowns and 12 interceptions in seven appearances. In his career, he threw for 20 touchdowns and 29 interceptions while posting an 8–11 record. 

As you might expect, Boryla wasn’t the first option, but got in as a replacement (something far more rare in past decades) when star quarterbacks Fran Tarkenton, Roger Staubach and others declined to play for injury-related reasons.

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Running back: Gaston Green

Unlike Boryla, Green was genuinely coming off a terrific year when he made the Pro Bowl in 1991. After spending three years with the Rams as a backup, he landed in Denver and helped the Broncos reach the AFC title game with 1,037 rushing yards and four touchdowns.

Green appeared headed for stardom but played only one more season before being out of the NFL at age 26 after rushing for 648 yards and two scores on 4.0 yards per carry. Green finished his career with just 2,136 yards and six touchdowns. 

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Wide receiver: Bob Grim

Grim played in an era when most teams played conservative offense, throwing only when necessary. As a result, he came down with a paltry 194 catches for 2,914 yards and 16 touchdowns over an 11-year career with the Vikings, Giants and Bears. 

In 1971, Grim earned his first and only Pro Bowl selection, catching 45 passes for 691 yards and seven touchdowns for a Vikings team that averaged 17.5 points per game. Both figures were career-highs for Grim, who never had 40 receptions or 600 yards in any other season.

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Tight end: Dwayne Carswell

Carswell had some stiff competition at tight end, with plenty of guys earning one selection over the years without big stats, including Gary Barnidge, Jordan Cameron and others. Still, Carswell gets the nod.

In Denver, Carswell played 12 seasons, catching 192 passes for 1,707 yards. In 2001, the hulking 290-pound tight end notched 34 receptions for 299 yards and four touchdowns, earning Pro Bowl honors.  From there, he played four more seasons, catching 51 passes before retiring.

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Offensive lineman: Carlton Haselrig

It’s never easy to put an offensive lineman into context because of the lack of stats. Also, for some of the older players, there’s very little film beyond a clip here and there. 

All that said, we’re going with Haselrig primarily because of his lack of longevity. Coming into the league as a 12th-round pick in the 1989 draft, Haselrig didn’t start until 1991, when he slid into Pittsburgh’s line as a guard. From there, he made the Pro Bowl in 1992 but started only 20 games the rest of his career, including nine with the Richie Kotite–led Jets in 1995 before retiring with 47 starts to his name.

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Former Saints defensive end Bruce Clark finished with 39.5 career sacks. | Peter Brouillet-Imagn Images

Defensive end/edge: Bruce Clark

Of all the positions, this was the toughest. Surprisingly, there were very few options, as most of the pass rushers over the years at least provided a few years of top-end play. 

In Clark’s case, he was a good player with only one season of double-digit sacks, doing so as a Pro Bowler with the forgettable 1984 Saints. In New Orleans, Clark played seven seasons, usually in front of the Dome Patrol linebacking corps of Sam Mills, Pat Swilling, Rickey Jackson and Vaughan Johnson. Ultimately, Clark totaled 39.5 sacks before retiring in 1989 with the Chiefs after coach Marty Schottenheimer’s first year.

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Defensive tackle: Dave Pear

Pear played only six seasons in the NFL, bouncing from the Colts in 1975 to the expansion Buccaneers one year later. After spending three seasons in Tampa Bay, Pear moved on to the Raiders, where he won a Super Bowl in ‘80 before retiring on top at the age of 27.

An undersized nose tackle at 250 pounds, Pear totaled 18.5 sacks (all unofficial as sacks weren’t official until 1982), including a career-best nine in 1978 with the Buccaneers. Outside of that season, Pear was a solid player who never again had even four sacks in a year.

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Linebacker: Ian Gold

Gold was a solid player for eight seasons, spending seven with the Broncos and one with the Buccaneers. In 2001, he made the Pro Bowl in his second year despite recording only 42 combined tackles and three sacks. 

From there, Gold never reached another Pro Bowl despite having some solid seasons, including a career-best 100 tackles and 6.5 sacks in 2002. From there, he spent another year in Denver, then a season with the Buccaneers, before returning to the Broncos for three years to finish his career. He was a good player, but a surprising Pro Bowler.

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Cornerback: Wayne Haddix

Haddix is a legend of Tecmo Super Bowl, playing like a Hall of Famer in that iconic Nintendo game. In real life, Haddix had one tremendous season and then fell off the proverbial cliff.

In 1990, Haddix was coming off a torn Achilles that robbed him of the prior season. Incredibly, he notched seven interceptions for the Buccaneers, including three pick-sixes, along with a league-high 231 return yards on those picks. In the other three years of his career, he never recorded another interception.

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Safety: Jerome Woods

Much like the defensive ends, safety doesn’t have a litany of surprising names at the forefront of this list. Although a quality player, Woods stands out because he wasn’t a true ballhawk. He had 15 career interceptions, and his only Pro Bowl came in 2003 for a Chiefs defense that ranked 29th. The unit didn’t force a punt in a 38–35 postseason loss to the Colts.

That year, Woods had three interceptions, including two returned for touchdowns, all while coming off a broken leg that kept him out for the 2002 season. Outside of 2003, though, Woods played eight solid-yet-unspectacular seasons with Kansas City, never amassing more than 90 tackles, two sacks or four interceptions in a season.

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