Pro Bowl selection day always brings a flurry of complaints about who was snubbed around the NFL.
But one thing is for sure: winning ball games increases a player’s odds of getting noticed.
And so it is that five Cleveland Browns players got the nod this year, including three starters.
But Browns safety Juan Thornhill warns his honored teammates not to plan on taking part in the festivities.
Congrats to all for being selected!! But don’t plan on attending 🤷🏽♂️ https://t.co/w75CwytFOj
— The Chosen Juan👑🙇🏽♂️ (@Juan_Thornhill) January 5, 2024
It’s not that Thornhill would begrudge the players a week of fun and frivolity.
Instead, it is an assumption that all of his teammates, including the Pro Bowlers, will have other commitments.
Players headed to the Super Bowl cannot participate in the Pro Bowl activities each season, and Thornhill infers that this will be the case for his team in February.
Cleveland can become the 12th wild card team in NFL history to make it to the big game.
They’d prefer to be the eighth Super Bowl champion to emerge from a wild card position.
Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are the last team to accomplish the feat during the 2020 season.
Winning the Super Bowl would cap off the NFL’s best subplot of 2023, which has been the return of Joe Flacco.
The 2012 Super Bowl MVP was just 3-14 since leaving Baltimore in 2019 before catching fire in Cleveland.
Jim Schwartz’s defense leads the league in forced 3-and-outs and can take over a game at any point.
Even special teams landed their kicker and punter among Pro Bowl alternates, and Thornhill is not the only fan expecting a lengthy postseason run from the Browns.
NEXT: Analyst Says Which AFC South Will Be Biggest Challenge For Browns
