Apparently, New York Giants running back Ahmad Bradshaw wasn’t one of the 12.5 million viewers who tuned into the Pro Bowl nine days ago.

Because, had he been, Bradshaw would have been better acquainted with the seldom-used but precise mechanics of sitting down on the field with the football.

It was a technique keenly, but unpopularly, demonstrated here by Cam Newton, who meekly plopped down on the Aloha Stadium turf and out of harm’s way to boos.

Within hours of NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell questioning the need for the Pro Bowl to continue in a Sunday interview, Bradshaw was in a position to show that the annual all-star game, as we have sadly come to know it, can actually fulfill a useful and even educational role. And in the Super Bowl, of all places.

Had the Giants not prevailed 21-17 Sunday in Super Bowl XLVI in Indianapolis, the second-guessing would have been rampant this week. Why, Giants faithful would have inquired, did Bradshaw not follow Newton’s Law of Squat Motion and Self Preservation and just sit down?

Here was the situation: The Giants had the ball on second down at the New England 6-yard line with 1 minute, 4 seconds remaining in a game New England led 17-15.

The problem was, if the Giants scored too quickly, by either field goal or touchdown, and left too much time on the clock, New England quarterback Tom Brady could come back and beat them, which is what nearly happened.

But if Bradshaw takes his time finding a seat at the 1-yard line or thereabouts, he runs the clock, sets up Lawrence Tynes for a short go-ahead field goal and forces the Patriots to exhaust their final timeout, thus severely reducing the chances of a New England comeback. For an NFLkicker, a kick from that close is practically automatic.

So, when quarterback Eli Manning handed off to Bradshaw and saw the enticing holes the defense was prepared to leave, he beseeched the running back with screams of “Don’t score! Don’t score!”

Yet here was a game on the line, a wide-open path to the end zone and Super Bowl glory beckoning Bradshaw. Or, as Giants guard Chris Snee put it later, the New England defense “parted like the Red Sea.”

Bradshaw belatedly sorted it all out and then sought to sit down inside the 1-yard line, But, by then, it was too late and he said the “momentum” of his 214-pound frame carried him into the end zone for the “oops” touchdown, leaving 57 seconds for the Patriots.

Mostly, you suspect, it was the instinct to succeed and adrenalin of the moment that carried Bradshaw past the point of no return, certainly a more honorable display than Newton’s.

Fortunately for the Giants, it all worked out in the end, as Brady’s last-gasp pass fell to the end-zone turf as time expired.

But not before the Pro Bowl had shown, however curiously, that it might just hold some unintended, extremely roundabout redeeming value, after all.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com of 529-4820.