Our colleague Mark Craig reported today that a league official said Vikings left tackle Bryant McKinnie was dismissed from the Pro Bowl for missing four of the five practices. He attended only one team meeting. McKinnie will be subject to a fine and also will lose his game check.
McKinnie gave a twitter update that claimed he withdrew from the game because of injury. He repeated that in a text message to us.
Here is what McKinnie wrote in his text:
"Body is hurting [too] bad and I talked [to] the trainer last night. Been having problems with my feet and was really trying [to] decide if I would be able [to] play. I decided I didn't wanna play, so I reached out [to] my agent, told him and he had the trainer give me a call and I described the pain I was feeling. Didn't get a chance [to] meet up with the trainer."
Mark Craig, who is covering the Pro Bowl for us, will have more on this story and reaction from other Pro Bowl players online later today.
