Sanders, Rice help give Pro Bowl fantasy feel

Deion Sanders is giving Jerry Rice one concession as Pro Bowl week begins: The record-setting wide receiver will call the coin toss today that starts the process of picking teams.

Besides that, the Hall of Fame cornerback claims he has the upper hand under the game’s new schoolyard-style format.

“I think it is going to be a blowout,” Sanders said of Sunday’s game in Hawaii. “I don’t think Jerry has strategized.”

Rice’s response: “That’s not going to happen. I have a pretty good mindset of where I want to go.”

The biggest change – a two-day draft today and Wednesday that will determine teams in a new “unconferenced” game – responds by targeting player egos and fan love for fantasy football.

The league was announcing replacements throughout Monday for players missing the game because of injury or the Super Bowl.

Andrew Luck of Indianapolis and Nick Foles of Philadelphia are replacing the quarterbacks in the Super Bowl, Denver’s Peyton Manning and Seattle’s Russell Wilson.

Running backs Eddie Lacy and Alfred Morris will step in for Adrian Peterson and Marshawn Lynch, while Alshon Jeffery and Larry Fitzgerald replace Calvin Johnson and Demaryius Thomas.