Nick Mangold has discovered the identities of his Pro Bowl team and some of his teammates for Sunday's NFL all-star game.
This never used to be the case. In Mangold's four previous Pro Bowls, after the 2008-11 seasons, he was on the AFC team, no questions asked. But this year's unconferenced Pro Bowl and team draft has changed things.
Mangold is one of the two centers selected by alumni team captain Jerry Rice. Actually, as the fourth of the four centers distributed in Tuesday's first day of the draft and passed on twice by Deion Sanders' side, he went to Team Rice.
Mangold knows one of the quarterbacks he'll likely be snapping to, since Saints QB Drew Brees is one of the active player captains for Team Rice.
Besides centers, five other positions (guard, fullback, defensive interior line and specialists) and 23 other players were drafted Tuesday in Kapolei, Hawaii, not far from Honolulu and Aloha Stadium, where Sunday's game will be played.
Tonight the draft concludes with 60 more players still to be selected — including our other Jets representative, CB Antonio Cromartie — during a three-hour primetime broadcast on NFL Network beginning at 8 p.m. ET.
Players selected Tuesday will kick off the draft show by walking the red carpet, and taped segments of Tuesday's draft process also will be featured.
