Snacks deserves Pro Bowl consideration, but complaining about snub is pushing it during dismal Giant season

GLENDALE, Ariz. — Damon Harrison probably deserved to make the Pro Bowl this season. His omission last season was corrected when Harrison was named first-team All-Pro (the only award of the two that really matters), and it could happen again this year.

And who really knows how Pro Bowl voting works, anyway? Last we checked, the only more confusing and senseless processes in the NFL these days are its concussion management and its catch rulings.

But I can’t recall anything as absurd and emasculating as Steve Spagnuolo’s decision mid-week to group Harrison, a distant fourth alternate for the annual NFL showcase, with Pro Bowl starter Landon Collins in the interim coach’s congratulations on a job well done in 2017.

If Spagnuolo wants to make a case that Harrison should have been voted in, more power to him. Coaches are supposed to have their players’ backs. And Harrison certainly has been one of the better individual players on a mostly dismal Giants team.

He also has played through a lot of injuries and hasn’t made a peep about doing it.

However, if Spagnuolo wants this coaching job full time, he should stop giving out participation trophies. His Giants (2-12) are in jeopardy against the Cardinals (6-8) on Sunday of becoming the first team with 13 losses in a single season in Giants history.

This is the NFL. This is a team sport. And when you’re a defensive tackle on a 2-12 team and your defense ranks dead last in the league in yards allowed per game (391.8) — including 31st out of 32 teams in rush yards surrendered per game (128.4) — it’s safe to assume the accolades won’t exactly come rolling in in late December and January.

In fact, it’s nothing to be proud of at all.

Spagnuolo named Harrison the defense’s new captain when linebacker Jonathan Casillas went on season-ending injured reserve a couple weeks ago, but it’s disappointing that the loudest Harrison has gotten all season was when he campaigned for Pro Bowl votes on Twitter before the announcement and then complained about the results.

Harrison, who is in the second year of a five-year, $46.2 million contract with $24 million guaranteed, is paid to be one of the team’s best players, for one. But he frequently refused to speak after games early this season, leaving his teammates standing at their lockers taking accountability for a season spiraling down the drain. How he is wearing the “C” after that behavior is a mystery.

Here’s the bottom line, though: the Giants may be 2-12 but they’re not supposed to be lowering their standards. And if a player on one of the worst defenses in the league doesn’t make the Pro Bowl, that player and the coordinator of that defense probably should wait to fight a different battle. the coach saying there was still a possibility Webb would be active in Arizona on Christmas Eve? Webb is expected to be inactive, but