Sincere thanks are due to Olin Kreutz (left) and Pat Williams (right) for adding much needed intrigue to an otherwise meaningless Week 17 contest, if not the even less-meaningful Pro Bowl.

From the Chicago Sun-Times’ Brad Biggs.

Vikings defensive tackle Pat Williams is out for revenge for what he feels was a Pro Bowl snubbing orchestrated by Kreutz, a charge the Bears center finds ridiculous. Don’t be surprised if Kreutz petitions coaches to let him play in an otherwise meaningless game, despite spraining an ankle Sunday at Green Bay.

Williams ripped Kreutz in a Nov. 4 article in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, calling the five-time Pro Bowl player “a joke.”

”You all want to bump the guy up,” Williams said. ”Kreutz, he ain’t nothing but a joke. He’s been a joke since he came in the league. I’ve never respected the guy.”

The bad-mouthing was followed last week by comments from Angelo Wright, Williams’ agent, in the St. Paul Pioneer Press, alleging that Kreutz worked to blackball Williams in Pro Bowl voting by players. Williams finished in the top three among NFC defensive tackles in fan balloting but was not named to the team, passed over by, among others, the Bears’ Tommie Harris.

”I know for a fact that the Bears were upset about Pat’s comments about Olin Kreutz,” Wright told the Pioneer Press. ”So Kreutz and the players called around and were in cahoots to make sure Pat didn’t get votes.”

Those comments set off Kreutz, who started ahead of Minnesota’s Matt Birk in last season’s Pro Bowl.

”When [Williams] talks nonsense about me like that, I can respond in so many ways,” Kreutz said. ”I can attack him. I can call him a fat slob. I can tell him he has never made the Pro Bowl. I can say all of this stuff. Then his stupid agent comes out and says I am manipulating Pro Bowl votes. Like I actually know that many people.

”Obviously, if everyone likes you, you’re probably doing something wrong. I’m glad there is someone out there that hates my guts. It makes me feel good about myself.”