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Colorado Broncos running back Willis McGahee and left tackle Ryan Clady happen to be put into the AFC's Professional Bowl roster.

McGahee replaces hurt Houston Texans running back Arian Promote, and Clady replaces hurt Miami Whales left tackle Mike Lengthy.

McGahee rushed for 1,199 yards, becoming the 2nd running in National football league history to top 1,000 yards for 3 teams, and that he assisted the Broncos set a franchise record with 2,532 hurrying yards. Younger crowd was selected for that Professional Bowl in 2007.

This is Clady's second Professional Bowl selection. Despite a spate of holding refers to this as season, Clady grew to become only the third tackle in league history to begin all the games making a minimum of two Professional Bowls in the first four National football league campaigns.

Clady and McGahee will join defensive teammates Champion Bailey, Elvis Dumervil and Von Burns within the Jan. 29 all-star game in Honolulu.

The tightrope is being strung from Boston through all the New England hamlets and states that make up sprawling Red Sox Nation. Bobby Valentine must walk that rope.

He's being given two years to make the difficult trek and he'll either come crashing down or maneuver the treacherous walk with smashing success.

That's the course staring the new Red Sox manager in his face.

When it comes to this storied American League franchise there's no middle ground. Success is determined by the word championship. The alternative is a virtual purgatory.

Valentine, 61, was introduced Thursday to Boston's demanding media and said: "With all due respect to New York, I can't imagine there's any tougher place to be good at what I'm going to try to do than here.

"I'm honored, I'm humbled and I'm pretty damn excited. This day is a special day, and it's more than a special day. It's the beginning of a life that I think is going to extend beyond anything else that I thought of doing."

It's been written and said in the days leading up to the official coronation that Valentine is the perfect fit for this difficult job. I agree.

But this will be by far the most demanding of any of the previous managerial positions he's held. It will be nothing like the Texas Rangers, the New York Mets or the two stints in Japan with the Chiba Lotte Marines.

It's Bobby V's first MLB managerial job since he was fired in 2002 after six-plus seasons with the Mets. He managed the Rangers for parts of eight seasons (1985-92).

Former President George H. W. Bush once told me he felt it was a huge mistake when his son, former President George W. Bush, who owned the Rangers at the time, fired Valentine.

He has a 1,117-1,072 regular-season record in the Majors.

Valentine is like a swizzle stick that stirs a drink. It's needed, but too much stirring and the drink overflows, spills.

That said, the outspoken Bobby V is ideal to bring the new culture owner John Henry said was needed in the Red Sox clubhouse after September's colossal collapse.

Terry Francona, who guided the Red Sox to two World Series titles in eight years, left after the 2011 season, saying "it was time for a new voice. I was frustrated in my inability to get some things done here."

Francona seemingly lost control of his players to the point where it was reported several drank beer and ate fast-food chicken in the clubhouse during games.

It will be Bobby V's first task to right this ship, to demand that each of his players can recite his rules and are on the same page.

That will require a close relationship with new Boston general manager Ben Cherington. It's been highly publicized that there was a gap between Valentine and Steve Phillips, the Mets' GM when Bobby V managed there.

"Delving on the past is not productive," Valentine said during Thursday's media conference. "What I would do differently is that I hopefully learned from mistakes. I can guarantee you no one in this room has made as many mistakes as I have. I think I have learned from most of them.

"One thing we all know is that things get spinning quickly. When they get spinning quickly sometimes they get out of control. I think that is probably what happened [in New York]."

Valentine was working as an ESPN analyst when the Red Sox were losing 20 of their 27 games in September, an epic fall that allowed the Tampa Bay Rays to win the AL Wild Card. During telecasts, he was often critical of some Red Sox players.

After the September fall, stories of the clubhouse shenanigans surfaced.

"Something happened in September that I wasn't involved in," Valentine said. "I didn't see it first-hand. I think reputation is something that other people think about you. And right now this group of guys has a reputation that isn't warranted. Everything I've heard about the players that were in uniform last year and the coaching staff says nothing but they had great character.

"There might have been a couple of characters who might have gotten out line, situations that were spinning too fast. I don't know. I can tell you I look forward to working with this group and establishing a culture of excellence."

Bobby V has never been at a loss for words, a trait that has often backfired.

There obviously will be times, especially in the tense environment of Red Sox Nation, when his reputation will not play well. Or be understood.

"I have a lot of adjectives [said] about me," he offered. "I can't describe them all and I won't even defend them all. It's reputation versus character. I think people who know me, and take the time to get to know me, understand that I have some qualities in my character that are OK.

He added: "I'm not the genius that I've heard people refer to me as. I'm not the polarizing guy that people refer to me as. I'm not the monster that breathes fire that some people have referred to me as. I'm a guy.

"I'm a regular human being with regular feelings and regular attributes that make me what I am. I think some of them, as I've been told by people who know me, are OK. I don't know if I'm polarizing or any of those other things. It's just what I am."

And for today, as the rope is stretched for his walk, he's Bobby Valentine, Boston Red Sox manager.

Brandt Snedeker rallied from six shots behind and beat Luke Donald in a playoff in The Heritage to deny the Englishman the No. 1 ranking Sunday.

Donald would've risen to the top spot in the world from No. 3 had he won. His countryman, Lee Westwood, moved from No. 2 to No. 1, replacing Martin Kaymer, after winning the Indonesian Masters earlier Sunday.

Donald saved par from difficult spots on the 71st and 72nd holes to force the playoff, then did it again on the second extra hole. But his luck ran out on Harbour Town Golf Links' closing lighthouse hole, No. 18, when he got a partially buried lie in a front bunker.

Donald blasted out about 15 feet from the flag and his chip for par from just off the green hit the back edge of the cup and bounced away, giving Snedeker his second career PGA Tour title and first since the 2007 Wyndham Championship in Greensboro, N.C.

Snedeker finished with a 7-under 64 to match Donald at 12 under. Donald shot his second straight 70.

Tommy Gainey finished a stroke back after a 68.

"It was going to be some big rewards if I won today," Donald said. "But I'll try and find the positives from this week and move on."

This figured to come down to a final-round duel between the final pair of third-round leader Donald and defending champion Jim Furyk, who was only a stroke behind.

But Snedeker, who started 10 groups before the leaders, pushed his way into contention with seven birdies over his first 12 holes. He rolled in 12-footer for par on his 72nd hole and headed to the clubhouse to wait.

Donald certainly kept him on the edge of his seat.

After Donald reached 12 under with an 18-foot NFL Jerseys Cheap birdie putt on the 13th, he missed putts for birdie on the 15th and 16th holes. Then Donald looked like he'd shoot himself out of it, sending his tee shot on the par-3 17th off the back, then landing his approach into the bunker in front of No. 18. Both times Donald chipped within four feet to save par.

Snedeker and Donald traded birdies on the first extra hole, the 18th, and pars on the second one, the 17th.

Snedeker hit the green on the last playoff hole and two-putted for par to win $1,026,000 US. The biggest question facing Snedeker now is whether he'll be back to defend his title.

The Heritage is without a title sponsor, something PGA Tour and event leaders say is essential for its return in 2012.

Gainey, bidding to become the first South Carolina native to win the state's PGA Tour event, missed a 15-foot birdie putt on his final hole that would've put him to the playoff.

Furyk finished with his highest score, 76, his past 33 rounds at Harbour Town to fall from contention.

Tim Herron (67) and Ricky Barnes (69) tied for fourth, two shots out of the playoff.