This weekend, the NFL schedule will take a week off before the Green Bay Packers and Pittsburgh Steelers square off in Super Bowl XLV.

Something is different this year, as the Pro Bowl, or the NFL’s version of an all-star game, will be played the week before the Super Bowl rather than after.

This is one thing NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has changed about the league that I absolutely do not like.

One thing that the Pro Bowl’s movement does is break with tradition.

The Pro Bowl, always held in Hawaii, has always signified the end of the season, and has always closed the season in grand style, with a game that feels more like a party.

With the Pro Bowl now being held before the season is over, it takes away from the feeling of grandeur people feel in the Super Bowl, because there’s already been the end-of-the-season Hawaiian party, making the Super Bowl feel anti-climactic.

Another problem with the Super Bowl being played after the Pro Bowl is that the players from each Super Bowl team will not participate in the Pro Bowl, and in theory the best teams have the best players.

So that takes away credibility from the Pro Bowl, because the players from each conference’s best team will be busy preparing for the Super Bowl.

An all-star AFC Team without Ben Roethlisberger, Troy Polamalu, or Hines Ward will just seem empty this week.

An NFC Squad without Aaron Rodgers or Charles Woodson just wouldn’t feel right.

With the Pro Bowl after the Super Bowl, these and other players from the Steelers and Packers would be able to participate, lending the game some more star power, which the Pro Bowl can sure use.

And honestly, the Super Bowl and Pro Bowl have been juxtaposed as they were for so many years for a reason.

They were not randomly thrown together. The Pro Bowl comes the week after the Super Bowl for a combination of reasons, so why change?

Last year’s Pro Bowl was the first played in January since 1989, and also the first played outside of Hawaii since 1990. It has worked this way for 20 years, why break it up now?

So consider this a personal plea to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to return the Pro Bowl to its rightful place.

Please, Roger, do not mess with the tradition, and don’t keep the league’s top two teams from being represented at a game that is supposed to showcase the NFL’s best.

It just does not make sense.

Brad Kupiec can be reached at 581-7944 or bmkupeic@eiu.edu.