No stress and no defense in Hawaii

HONOLULU -- For the NFL's best players, a trip to the Pro Bowl is an honor, a working vacation and a most-expenses-paid reward for a year of hard knocks. For a week, they're VIPs in an island paradise, reveling in exceptional treatment and privileges for their whole families.

And the all-stars who travel to Hawaii with unsettled contract situations become stars among the stars, who sometimes use this quality time to encourage reunions back on the mainland. After all, it certainly worked last season, when Donovan McNabb sold Terrell Owens on his move to Philadelphia by schmoozing the San Francisco receiver all week.

A few of the Eagles were at it again in the week leading up to today's game. One by one, they sidled up to Carolina's Muhsin Muhammad and encouraged him to move to greener pastures -- Eagles green, that is. They even goaded Muhammad to pose in a team picture with Philadelphia's 10 Pro Bowlers.

Muhammad still says he wants to stay in Carolina, and he's focused on his second trip to the Pro Bowl, which will be played before an enthusiastic sellout crowd at Aloha Stadium for the 26th straight year.

These recruitment efforts go on quietly, because everything about Pro Bowl week is designed to avoid controversy or stress.

The all-stars will be hard-pressed to match last season's game, a 55-52 victory for the NFC and the highest-scoring Pro Bowl in NFL history. The teams combined for 1,022 yards and also scored 42 points in the fourth quarter, both records, while Peyton Manning and MVP Marc Bulger set passing records as the NFC rallied from an 18-point deficit in the final 13 minutes.

"If we can top that, they might throw out this game altogether and just play touch football next year," Manning said.