2016 Pro Bowl: Game time, TV info
By Thomas Moore
The Cleveland Browns will have three players representing the team in tonight’s 2016 Pro Bowl. Here is how you can watch the game.
The NFL will fill the first Sunday without actual football since September with tonight’s Pro Bowl game from Hawaii.
The Cleveland Browns will be represented by left tackle Joe Thomas, making his ninth appearance, center Alex Mack, making his third, and tight end Gary Barnidge, making his first.
“I am very appreciative of this honor,” Barnidge said after being named as a replacement for New England’s Rob Gronkowski. “It is a privilege to be able to represent the Browns and our great fans at the Pro Bowl. One of the best things about this is that I get to share this experience with Joe and Alex.”
Thomas’ appearance ties the franchise record as he joins Jim Brown and Lou Groza with his ninth selection.
“Jim Brown and Lou Groza are two of the greatest Browns of all time and the list of players who have been selected to the Pro Bowl their first nine seasons is a who’s who of NFL history,” Thomas said. “The neat thing about that list is that it spans many generations. To be included with names like those is pretty special and very humbling.”
Mack is the first center in team history to be honored with a Pro Bowl selection three times.
“It’s an honor to be voted to this year’s Pro Bowl, especially coming off of a season where I had to watch from the sidelines for the first time,” Mack said. “It was a lot of work during the offseason to come back from injury, but it was all worth it to be back on the field with my teammates. As a lineman, you depend on the man next to you, and I owe a lot of this honor to my teammates and coaches. Unfortunately, we haven’t had the success that we wanted this year, but I look forward to representing Cleveland and the Browns in Hawaii.”
The league had to invite 133 players to fill out the 44-man rosters for the two sides due to a record number of players declining invitations.
For the third year in a row the NFL had former players “draft” the rosters for the game – this year it was Michael Irvin and Jerry Rice – rather than using the more-traditional conference vs. conference format, all in an attempt to reverse a continuing decline in TV ratings. You can view the final rosters here.
In any event, if you need a football fix here is how you can watch the game.
Date: Sunday, Jan. 31, 2016
Kickoff Time: 7 p.m. EST
Location: Honolulu
Stadium: Aloha Stadium
TV Channel: ESPN
Announcers: Mike Tirico and Jon Gruden
Live Stream: Watch ESPN/Watch ESPN App