The NFL should be concerned about getting its best and most popular players back into the Pro Bowl. To take care of the “who,” the “when” must be fixed … then the “where” takes care of itself.

What was the league’s all-star game has devolved into its whoever-feels-like-it game. The best players from the best teams don’t come. Some of them can’t come, because the NFL set it up that way.

Scheduling the Pro Bowl before the Super Bowl is as bad a problem as its pro wrestling style of fake football.

It means no participants from the league’s two top teams; this year 14 were named Pro Bowlers from the Broncos and Panthers.

Also, all but two of 14 invited from the Patriots and Cardinals, the teams that lost in the conference championship games, declined. It’s just too soon for them. When the Pro Bowl was after the Super Bowl, the final four losers generally found their way to Honolulu.

There’s a snowball effect. A total of 133 players had to be asked before the 86 Pro Bowl roster spots were filled this year. That’s a record, surpassing the 119 for the 2010 game — which perhaps not coincidentally, was the first one played before the Super Bowl.

Jerry Rice and Michael Irvin said it themselves — the Pro Bowl was attractive because it gave them a chance to be among their fellow elite. Now the NFL has to enlist Hall of Famers such as them to be “captains” and drum up fan interest since so few of the current players who show up are worthy of marquee status.

Commissioner Roger Goodell said he was open to ideas to improve the Pro Bowl. Well, there is an obvious one. Make it so the players most deserving (and the ones fans want to see) can participate. Move it back to the Sunday after the Super Bowl.

If it remains before the Super Bowl we can expect interest — from players and fans — to continue to decline.

And if that’s the case, why should the state of Hawaii keep investing $5 million a year in what has for a long time been a farce of a football game?

It used to be worth the boost in tourism. But the TV ratings went down, which means the return on investment is down, too. The trend will continue with the steady diet of alternates that having the games in the wrong order generates.

Word is the NFL is open to reverting to what makes sense and would return more of its stars to its all-star game. And that would mean Hawaii makes a lot more sense for the Pro Bowl than Houston, site of the Super Bowl.

Houston, however, has the edge if the Pro Bowl remains before the Super Bowl. A lot of the rationale for the original switch had to do with consolidating the games in one place, letting the NFL cut expenses and simplify logistics.

Speaking of which, there is that matter of the terrible traffic and understaffed security lines that had some fans still trying to get into Aloha Stadium four hours after leaving home. Some didn’t get in until nearly halftime. Some gave up and turned around.

And some vowed to never buy Pro Bowl tickets again.

Can’t say I blame them, especially when you’re enduring gridlock for the chance to see Tyrod Taylor rather than Cam Newton.

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