Packers S Nick Collins (left) is shown here at Pro Bowl practice with fellow NFC safety Antrel Rolle of Arizona.
*Packers safety Nick Collins, who lives in Gainesville, Fla., is appearing in his second straight Pro Bowl this week. Quarterback Aaron Rodgers, linebacker Clay Matthews and cornerback Charles Woodson also were selected for the NFC squad, but Woodson is not in Miami due to injury issues.
Packers.com caught up with Collins for this update on how things are going in Miami: *
Everything has been good so far. The best thing about having the Pro Bowl in Florida this year is a lot of my family members get to come to the game and get that experience. It's just been a blessing for me to have another opportunity to play in it, and I'm glad that it's here so everybody can get a chance to see me.
Last year I had around 15 ticket requests, and this year it's more like 50. It's crazy, all the family, friends, ... but I just want them to have a chance to see me. They've been by my side throughout my whole career, so I think it's a great opportunity to give back to them something, and hopefully they enjoy it. I have my wife, my kids and my agent here, and my sister and my nephew are coming down today. We're going to have a great time. Atari Bigby and Al Harris are supposed to come by later and say what's up, so I'm looking forward to that.
As the only one of our guys who has been to the Pro Bowl before, I've given a little advice to Aaron and Clay -- Don't give anybody your room number. That was the main thing I told them. Because if they give out that room number to other players, they'll use it and you'll look at that bill at the end of the day and not be happy. Al told me about that last year in Hawaii. I had a little seniority help over there.
Everybody loves Hawaii, but as far as changing the location of the Pro Bowl, I think every once in a while they should move it and give guys a chance to see different cities so they can have a different environment, a different vibe and just have fun. In Hawaii they had a lot of events right at the hotel. Here in Florida, a lot of guys are trying to drive down to South Beach or figure out how they're going to get there. They have limos if you want to jump in one to get to the different parties.
We haven't done much yet outside of the football stuff. We're supposed to join the 'Play 60' program today, helping to build a playground at a park, so I'll go out there and lend a hand. Then I might get a little beach time, go out there on the jet skis and have a little fun.
It's too bad Charles didn't make it. It would have been great to have another Green Bay DB out here, like with Al last year. But the guy has been here numerous times, and I know he's been having nagging injuries, so I think he just wanted his body to heal and get ready for next season.
It's great just being with all the guys. It's a privilege to have these 82 guys, 86, however many players here enjoying themselves. You get to see different guys from different teams, different personalities, how they carry themselves off the field and on the field. That's what a lot of guys like, they get to see players and get to know the names and follow them throughout the rest of their career.
