Michael Bennett’s 7-yard run may have helped save the Pro Bowl. Or it might have helped kill it.

Did the Seattle Seahawks’ version of Refrigerator Perry who lives in Hawaii Kai show that all-star games are plenty of fun because you don’t have to take them too seriously?

Or was the carry by the defensive lineman and ambassador of aloha just another example of how the Pro Bowl has degenerated into a carnival, thus adding another nail to a coffin for an event some feel has long outlived its freshness date?

Either way, there will be plenty of folks happy with the result. Pro Bowl yay or nay has become one of those polarizing topics, especially in the islands that have hosted it every year but two since 1980.

But when it comes to Bennett, there’s widespread agreement. Everyone who meets him thinks he’s a great guy … well, maybe not opposing offensive linemen in real NFL games, but just about anyone else. And he did his day job of defensive end well enough Sunday to get the defensive MVP award.

He fulfilled the lineman’s dream of toting the rock on the same day John Scott was named MVP of the NHL All-Star Game. You know, the John Scott with the job title of goon who hockey fans voted into the game pretty much as a joke. He scored two goals, and now you can add lovable in front of goon.

While the Pro Bowl always has been problematic as a contest of the best against the best in most of the game’s matchups due to the violent nature of football, this mockery of the sport has reached new levels in recent years. New levels of pro-wrestling-type fun if you like it, new levels of distortion and digression from anything resembling a real game if you don’t.

Where else does:

Giants wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. play safety; Jameis Winston throw a touchdown pass to Delanie Walker, Marcus Mariota’s tight end with the Titans; Packers linebacker Clay Matthews play two-hand touch on running plays (so did everyone else, but it was especially shocking to see the fierce Matthews do so)?

It’s all harmless fun, and the players like it — or the ones who came here do, anyway.

“It’s good like this,” said Rams running back Todd Gurley, in Hawaii for the first time. “This gives guys a chance to experience new things, to do things they normally don’t do.”

For Gurley, it was catching a touchdown pass — his first as a pro. The 10-yarder from Russell Wilson gave Team Irvin a 21-7 lead. Team Rice scored first, but then allowed three TDs in a row and never caught up, falling 49-27.

Gurley’s TD came early in the second quarter, when most of the near-full house had finally made it through the bottleneck of security and to their seats. Let’s just say this time no one complained about the Aloha Stadium playing surface, but event management was less than stellar.

But Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie’s Willie Mays catch of Tyrod Taylor’s long pass for his second interception certainly was. Once again, this game has proven to be a feast for defensive backs.

This is especially true when you have to invite 11 quarterbacks to get six.

But whatever the Pro Bowl’s flaws and whatever it’s future, this one will be remembered favorably because Michael Bennett got a day in the sun, and he got to run the ball.

Reach Dave Reardon at dreardon@staradvertiser.com or 529-4783. His blog is at Hawaiiwarriorworld.com/quick-reads.