Leave it to Larry Fitzgerald, who can exploit seams in defensive coverage and illuminate fallacies in NFL thinking in a single bound, to put forth a parting reminder on the error of the Pro Bowl's impending move.

With a two-touchdown performance that earned the NFC a 30-21 victory and himself the Dan McGuire Most Outstanding Player award, pro football's premier receiver provided food for thought about the NFL's ditching of Hawai'i after a 30-year Pro Bowl relationship and its newfangled plan for the game.

When the Pro Bowl lands in Miami Feb. 7, 2010, the first time the league's all-star game will be played outside of Hawai'i since 1980, it will do so without participation of Super Bowl players since it will be played in the week preceding the big game.

The move, the NFL maintains, is to help enhance the Pro Bowl. But you really have to wonder since the all-star game will be missing some of its brightest stars and fan favorites, those on the Super Bowl rosters.

Had that been the case yesterday, not only would there have been no opportunity to view the Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers and Arizona quarterback Kurt Warner, there would have been no Fitzgerald and his five catches for 81 yards. Which might have meant nothing to write home about in a game in which he provided the biggest highlights, a 46-yard touchdown pass from Drew Brees that brought fans to their feet at the first-half gun and the go-ahead score, a 2-yard pass from Eli Manning, with 4 minutes, 7 seconds left.

For the announced figure of 49,958 — the actual crowd on hand looking more in the neighborhood of 47,000 — Fitzgerald was the show. In a galaxy of the game's biggest stars, he was the conversation piece, showing as bright as the 2-foot-high glistening MVP trophy with which he left.

Unless, of course, you happened to be cornerback Cortland Finnegan, who gave futile chase to Fitzgerald's flowing mane on both plays.

But while Fitzgerald would have preferred to have left Tampa with the Lombardi Trophy, symbolic of the world championship, he said he wouldn't have missed the Pro Bowl opportunity.

"Playing in this game is a great experience; a great time," Fitzgerald said. "I know it wouldn't have been as good (missing the Pro Bowl). Hopefully, after next year, the NFL will bring it back (to the current system) because it is a great experience."

Three of Warner's Pro Bowl appearances have come following Super Bowls and, while going back-to-back can be fatiguing, which was why Warner played but one series yesterday, he, too, maintains he wouldn't miss the opportunity. "I know what the league is trying to do, but there is something special about coming to Hawai'i," Warner said.

It seems like only yesteryear the NFL was billing the combination of Hawai'i and the Pro Bowl as "the perfect partnership."

Now, with the game headed to Miami in 2010 — and who-knows-where after that (Arlington, Texas in 2011? Indianapolis in 2012?) — we are left to wonder if the NFL will see the errors of its ways sooner or later.

Yesterday, on a picture postcard kind of day and with a memorable individual performance, Hawai'i and Fitzgerald showed the league what it might be walking away from.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.