McKinnie's season will end close to home

One way or another, Bryant McKinnie's eighth NFL season is going to end in Miami, his adopted hometown.

The Woodbury High School graduate and Minnesota Vikings left tackle was selected to his first Pro Bowl, which will be held in McKinnie's offseason home of Miami. McKinnie played his last two college seasons at the University of Miami, winning the Outland Trophy and a national title his senior year.

"It will be nice to play in Miami, I'll have a lot of family and friends there," said McKinnie. "It will be nice to be part of the only Pro Bowl in Miami."

The Super Bowl will also be held in Miami this season, with the NFL experimenting with holding the Pro Bowl at the Super Bowl site on the off week between the conference championship games and the Super Bowl. The game had been played in Hawaii the week after the Super Bowl.

Players on teams participating in the Super Bowl will not play in the Pro Bowl, so McKinnie's preference would be to play in the game on Feb. 7 and not the one on Jan. 31.

While McKinnie has been to the playoffs on two previous occasions, he feels this is his best chance to reach the Super Bowl. The second-seeded Vikings face the third-seeded Dallas Cowboys on Sunday in an NFC divisional playoff game at 1 p.m.

Minnesota earned a first-round bye and the No. 2 seed when the Eagles lost to the Cowboys the last week of the regular season. Dallas then beat the Eagles again in the playoffs to earn the matchup with the Vikings.

"I'm getting calls from a lot of Eagles fans who want us to beat the Cowboys for them," said McKinnie. "I have a better feeling this year, because I feel I'm part of a better team than any I've been on in the past.

"We have the experience you need in a playoff game. We definitely used the bye, because a lot of guys in the O-line were banged up and we needed the week of rest."

Part of the Vikings' experience comes from 40-year-old Brett Favre, the latest in a revolving door of quarterbacks in Minnesota but certainly the most accomplished of the group. Favre came out of retirement midway through training camp and wound up having one of the best seasons of a Hall of Fame career.

Click here to order Bryant McKinnie’s proCane Rookie Card.



(nj.com)