In what comes as a very pleasant surprise, the Most Valuable Player of the 2013 Pro Bowl was a guy who, in the words of Dante Hicks from Clerks, wasn't even supposed to be there today.

Minnesota Vikings' tight end Kyle Rudolph, who was named to the game on Tuesday as a replacement for Tony Gonzalez, was named the Most Valuable Player of the 2013 Pro Bowl. Rudolph did all of his damage in the first half of play, catching five passes for 122 yards, including a 52-yard catch that wound up being the longest play of the game. He also caught a 3-yard touchdown pass from Eli Manning on the final play of the first half.

Today's game should be the first of many trips to Honolulu for the Vikings' second-year tight end. He put together a nice display today in a Pro Bowl that was, despite the 62-35 final score, much more tightly contested than last year's joke of a contest.

Congratulations to Kyle Rudolph on being named the 2013 Pro Bowl Most Valuable Player. We'll have more on the performance of the Vikings' players in this year's game coming up shortly.