Pro Bowl 2016: TV Schedule, Live Stream and NFL Players Pool

There's no such thing as an off week in the NFL these days, with this weekend's impending showdown between Team Irvin and Team Rice at the 2016 Pro Bowl as the ultimate proof.

Due to iffy ratings and reception in the past, Hall of Famers Jerry Rice and Michael Irvin are back in control of teams this year in the unconferenced format. The draft from the player pool will once again draw inspiration from fantasy football to hook viewers.

It's rather fitting that the Pro Bowl is in the headlines after what was the wildest season in recent memory, as it has been a hotbed for strange oddities in past years—which is a good thing. Here's a look at viewing info and the player pool, which continues to morph as players drop and get added in the wake of conference championship weekend.

Game Details

When: Sunday, January 31 at 7 p.m. ET

Where: Aloha Stadium, Honolulu, Hawaii

Television: ESPN

Live Stream: WatchESPN

NFL Players Pool

Offense
Defense/Special Teams
Position	Player	Team
QB	Tom Brady (I)	New England Patriots
QB	Cam Newton (I)	Carolina Panthers
QB	Carson Palmer (I)	Arizona Cardinals
QB	Tyrod Taylor (R)	Buffalo Bills
QB	Jameis Winston (R)	Tampa Bay Buccaneers
QB	Teddy Bridgewater (R)	Minnesota Vikings
QB	Aaron Rodgers (I)	Green Bay Packers
QB	Russell Wilson	Seattle Seahawks
QB	Ben Roethlisberger (I)	Pittsburgh Steelers
QB	Derek Carr (R)	Oakland Raiders
QB	Eli Manning (R)	New York Giants
RB	Jonathan Stewart (I)	Carolina Panthers
RB	Adrian Peterson	Minnesota Vikings
RB	LeSean McCoy (I)	Buffalo Bills
RB	Todd Gurley	Los Angeles Rams
RB	Latavius Murray (R)	Oakland Raiders
RB	Devonta Freeman	Atlanta Falcons
RB	Doug Martin	Tampa Bay Buccaneers
RB	Chris Ivory (R)	New York Jets
FB	Pat DiMarco (R)	Atlanta Falcons
FB	Mike Tolbert (I)	Carolina Panthers
FB	Marcel Reece	Oakland Raiders
WR	Brandon Marshall (I)	New York Jets
WR	Julio Jones	Atlanta Falcons
WR	Calvin Johnson (I)	Detroit Lions
WR	DeAndre Hopkins	Houston Texans
WR	A.J. Green	Cincinnati Bengals
WR	Larry Fitzgerald	Arizona Cardinals
WR	Antonio Brown (I)	Pittsburgh Steelers
WR	Odell Beckham Jr.	New York Giants
WR	Allen Robinson (R)	Jacksonville Jaguars
WR	Jarvis Landry (R)	Miami Dolphins
WR	Amari Cooper (R)	Oakland Raiders
TE	Greg Olsen (I)	Carolina Panthers
TE	Delanie Walker (R)	Tennessee Titans
TE	Gary Barnidge (R)	Cleveland Browns
TE	Travis Kelce	Kansas City Chiefs
TE	Rob Gronkowski (I)	New England Patriots
TE	Tyler Eifert	Cincinnati Bengals
OT	Trent Williams (I)	Washington Redskins
OT	Andrew Whitworth	Cincinnati Bengals
OT	Joe Thomas	Cleveland Browns
OT	Joe Staley	San Francisco 49ers
OT	Tyron Smith	Dallas Cowboys
OT	Jason Peters	Philadelphia Eagles
OT	Branden Albert (R)	Miami Dolphins
C	Mike Pouncey (I)	Miami Dolphins
C	Eric Wood (R)	Buffalo Bills
C	Alex Mack	Cleveland Browns
C	Ryan Kalil (I)	Carolina Panthers
C	Travis Frederick	Dallas Cowboys
C	Nick Mangold (R)	New York Jets
OG	Marshal Yanda	Baltimore Ravens
OG	Logan Mankins (R)	Tampa Bay Buccaneers
OG	Richie Incognito (R)	Buffalo Bills
OG	Trai Turner (I)	Carolina Panthers
OG	Josh Sitton	Green Bay Packers
OG	Zack Martin	Dallas Cowboys
OG	Mike Iupati	Arizona Cardinals
OG	David DeCastro	Pittsburgh Steelers
Position	Player	Team
DE	Muhammad Wilkerson (I)	New York Jets
DE	J.J. Watt (I)	Houston Texans
DE	Khalil Mack	Oakland Raiders
DE	Chandler Jones	New England Patriots
DE	Michael Bennett	Seattle Seahawks
DE	Ezekiel Ansah	Detroit Lions
DE	Everson Griffen (R)	Minnesota Vikings
DE	Carlos Dunlap (R)	Cincinnati Bengals
DT	Kawann Short (I)	Carolina Panthers
DT	Gerald McCoy	Tampa Bay Buccaneers
DT	Geno Atkins	Cincinnati Bengals
DT	Jurrell Casey (R)	Tennessee Titans
DT	Cam Jordan (R)	New Orleans Saints
DT	Aaron Donald	Los Angeles Rams
DT	Fletcher Cox	Philadelphia Eagles
DT	Calais Campbell	Arizona Cardinals
OLB	DeMarcus Ware (I)	Denver Broncos
OLB	Von Miller (I)	Denver Broncos
OLB	Julius Peppers (R)	Green Bay Packers
OLB	Justin Houston (I)	Kansas City Chiefs
OLB	Tamba Hali	Kansas City Chiefs
OLB	Elvis Dumervil (R)	Baltimore Ravens
OLB	Thomas Davis (I)	Carolina Panthers
OLB	Lavonte David (R)	Tampa Bay Buccaneers
OLB	Jamie Collins	New England Patriots
OLB	Sean Lee (R)	Dallas Cowboys
ILB	Bobby Wagner	Seattle Seahawks
ILB	Clay Matthews	Green Bay Packers
ILB	Luke Kuechly (I)	Carolina Panthers
ILB	NaVorro Bowman	San Francisco 49ers
CB	Aqib Talib (I)	Denver Broncos
CB	Adam Jones (R)	Cincinnati Bengals
CB	Richard Sherman	Seattle Seahawks
CB	Darrelle Revis (I)	New York Jets
CB	Patrick Peterson	Arizona Cardinals
CB	Marcus Peters	Kansas City Chiefs
CB	Josh Norman (I)	Carolina Panthers
CB	Chris Harris (I)	Denver Broncos
CB	Malcolm Butler	New England Patriots
CB	Desmond Trufant (R)	Atlanta Falcons
CB	Brent Grimes (R)	Miami Dolphins
CB	Jason Verrett (R)	San Diego Chargers
CB	Vontae Davis (R)	Indianapolis Colts
S	Charles Woodson	Oakland Raiders
S	Earl Thomas (I)	Seattle Seahawks
S	Harrison Smith (R)	Minnesota Vikings
S	Reggie Nelson (I)	Cincinnati Bengals
S	Reshad Jones (R)	Miami Dolphins
S	Mike Adams (R)	Indianapolis Colts
S	Tyrann Mathieu	Arizona Cardinals
S	Kam Chancellor (I)	Seattle Seahawks
S	Eric Berry	Kansas City Chiefs
K	Stephen Gostkowski	New England Patriots
K	Dan Bailey	Dallas Cowboys
P	Sam Koch	Baltimore Ravens
P	Johnny Hekker	Los Angeles Rams
PR	Darren Sproles	Philadelphia Eagles
PR	Tyler Lockett	Seattle Seahawks
ST	Matthew Slater	New England Patriots
ST	Justin Bethel	Arizona Cardinals
LS	Morgan Cox	Baltimore Ravens

Updating list available at NFL.com. 

What a pool, right?

As is the case most years, folks beat drums about snubs out of the gates. Jacksonville Jaguars wideout Allen Robinson was a popular one in the early going, which made sense after he caught 80 passes for 1,400 yards and 14 scores—but he's now in the pool as a replacement.

These things tend to sort themselves out, especially with star-studded teams such as the Denver Broncos and Carolina Panthers heading to the Super Bowl.

The draft also sorts things out. This year's spectacle goes down on Wednesday, January 27 at 7:30 p.m. ET on ESPN2, where Irvin and Rice will square off in the selection process to make things official.

Flanking Irvin and Rice as assistants will be Darren Woodson and Eric Davis, respectively, to help with the defensive side of things.

Perhaps most interesting are the player captains. Cincinnati Bengals defensive tackle Geno Atkins and Atlanta Falcons running back Devonta Freeman will man one side. Atkins earned the honor by being his usual dominant self, ranking as the No. 2 defensive tackle in the league at Pro Football Focus. Freeman was one of the year's breakout stars with 1,061 rushing yards and 11 scores.

Los Angeles Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald and New York Giants wideout Odell Beckham will man the other side as player captains. Donald was the only player on the list at PFF to rank ahead of Atkins, and Beckham posted another great season with 96 catches for 1,450 yards and 13 touchdowns.

Other than an interesting way to sort the teams and the obvious offensive-minded outbursts the game provides, it also continues to serve as a testing ground for quality-of-life improvements the league could implement as soon as next year. 

For example, the league will test a new communication system during the game to help alleviate complaints from coaches about headset issues. NFL.com shared the report:

"

At next week's Pro Bowl, the NFL will test a new and improved coach-to-coach communication system, according to NFL Media Insider Ian Rapoport. If the test goes smoothly, the new system could be implemented for the 2016 season. The hope is the new system will end in-game communication issues that have been experienced by some teams.

"

With any luck, the testing ground will be the final stop before the changes go leaguewide next season.

At the least, the Pro Bowl has impressive leaders, innovations to help the game and unpredictable outbursts going for it. Some might decry the almost flag-football nature of the contest, but the guys are playing in Honolulu after a 17-week season and a grueling summer of training camp just for the right to suit up for the 17 weeks.

The nature of contest leads to, say, Nick Foles winning offensive MVP in 2014 and Matthew Stafford taking the prize last year.

With so many names still hopping in and out of the process and the draft on the way, there's a certain intrigue around the event. The NFL seems to have found a solid process to fill the weeklong gap before the Super Bowl, and at the least players get rewarded for a long season and the state of the league itself may improve in the process. 

At the end of the day, football is football. Fans can get their fix and see some of their favorite players for the last time Sunday evening.

Stats courtesy of NFL.com and are accurate as of January 26. All advanced metrics courtesy of Pro Football Focus. All betting information courtesy of Odds Shark.