FOXBORO -- He may not have been the choice of Baltimore linebacker Terrell Suggs [1] but Tom Brady was a clear winner in the fan-balloting portion of the Pro Bowl vote released Wednesday by the NFL.
The Patriots quarterback - in the midst of a spectacular season - received 1,877,079 votes to lead all NFL All-Stars in fan balloting for the game to be held on Jan. 30, between the end of the conference championships and Super Bowl XLV on Feb. 7 in Arlington, TX. It's Brady's hope that he'll be unavailable to take part because of preparations for the Super Bowl.
Fan voting ended on Monday, with Brady not only leading the AFC but the NFL among the top 10 Pro Bowl vote-getters. Brady topped a list that included - in order - Michael Vick, Peyton Manning, Philip Rivers, Drew Brees, Adrian Peterson, Aaron Rodgers, Arian Foster, Maurice Jones-Drew and Matt Ryan.
Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski finished fouth among the NFL's top five rookie vote-getters with 205,948 votes. There was a record 98.59 million votes cast on NFL.com, on wireless phones and on Facebook. Fans cast 89.52 million votes on NFL.com, 8.50 million votes on their wireless phones and 570,000 votes on Facebook.
For more, visit the Patriots team page at weei.com/patriots [2] and the blog It Is What It Is [3].
Links:
[1] http://itiswhatitis.weei.com/sports/newengland/football/patriots/2010/12/22/terrell-suggs-may-have-just-lit-a-fire-under-tom-brady/
[2] http://www.itiswhatitis.weei.com
[3] http://www.weei.com/patriots
[4] http://www.weei.com/category/boston/patriots