Don’t try telling David Diehl that nobody cares about the Pro Bowl, or that nobody’s interested in watching it.

In this wholly unimportant game tonight, Diehl played every single play.

He and Eagles left tackle Jason Peters were forced to do that thanks to Vikings tackle Bryant McKinnie, who was thrown off the NFC team late last week. That left the NFC squad with just two tackles. And while NFC and Cowboys coach Wade Phillips could have asked Cowboys guard Leonard Davis to take some snaps at tackle, he chose not to.

That forced Diehl (and Peters) to play all 62 of the NFC’s offensive plays.

“This is something you wanted to do when you were a kid,” said Diehl, who was playing in his first Pro Bowl. “I’m honored to be here. Granted I wasn’t expecting to play the whole game, but I got here doing it as a Giant, being a blue collar guy. Granted I’m not in the condition I was in during the football season, but when you’re called upon, you do it because the guys next to you are depending on you to go out there and play.”

Diehl played the whole game - - a 41-34 AFC win - - at right tackle, the first time he’s seen live action on that side of the line since 2004. His two Pro Bowl linemates from the Giants - - center Shaun O’Hara and guard Chris Snee - - were both impressed with Diehl’s Ironman performance, though it’s not like they were volunteering to play tackle to give Diehl a break.

“Dave doesn’t like to miss a play,” Snee said. “So who am I to tell him to come out?”

8:46 p.m. - - In case you missed it — and for your sake, I hope you did — Steve Smith caught a 48-yard touchdown in his first Pro Bowl, opening the scoring for the NFC.

Smith, of course, is the first Giants receiver in the Pro Bowl since 1968. I’m having difficulty finding all the Pro Bowl box scores online, but it’s a good bet that Smith is also the first Giants receiver to catch a touchdown pass in the Pro Bowl in … in a long, long time. It’s entirely possible he’s the first ever.

So, Steve Smith, how does it feel?

“It feels terrible,” he said. The quote sheet says Smith was laughing, and then said “No, it feels good.”

And how does it feel to be here in Miami?

“It’s beautiful,” he said. “It’s paradise. Too bad it’s not in Hawaii.”

Amen to that.

***

The view from my press box seat at Sun Life Stadium in Miami, site of the 2010 Pro Bowl.

The Daily News’ South Florida bureau officially opened this afternoon when I arrived in not-so-sunny, mildly warm Ft. Lauderdale with the rest of Team Daily News. The fun and excitement of that lasted about three hours, right until we got in the car and drove towards tonight’s Pro Bowl.

Yawn.

The last time I was here, I was shivering in the auxiliary press box at Super Bowl XL, trying to prevent my computer from getting soaked in a driving rain storm. But at least I was watching an actual game that night. The Pro Bowl is the worst all-star event in professional sports and is usually a must-miss event played during baseball spring training, almost half a world away.

As much as the Pro Bowl bores me, though, I do applaud the NFL for bringing the game to Miami. It made perfect sense. Very few members of the mainland media were covering the game over the last decade or so, and in this economy the number threatened to dwindle to zero. So, since the NFL couldn’t get the media to go cover the game, they brought the game to us.

And it’s worked. More people are talking and writing about the Pro Bowl than I can ever remember. It doesn’t even matter that most of the stories are about players pulling out of the game. Any publicity and attention - for the most part - is a good thing.

Still, as someone once said, you can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig. So while I will happy tell you how the Giants’ four Pro Bowlers - center Shaun O’Hara, guard Chris Snee, tackle David Diehl and receiver Steve Smith - fare tonight, I’m not going to fake interest in what’s happening on the field. As you can see from the picture, I don’t have much of a view anyway.

As I said before … Yawn.

***

Vikings T Bryant McKinnie was kicked off the NFC Pro Bowl team a couple of days ago for missing a practice. That has created a problem, considering there are only two other tackles on the NFC team - - Philly’s Jason Peters and the Giants’ David Diehl - - who are now forced to play the entire game.

Now, Diehl doesn’t like to come out of games and this is his first Pro Bowl … but still …

Apparently Cowboys guard Leonard Davis is going to help out at tackle, but there are only three guards on the NFC roster, so when he’s out of the guard rotation it’ll put more of a strain on Giants’ guard Chris Snee.

I’m a little unclear on why the NFL couldn’t have brought in another tackle to take McKinnie’s spot. Yeah, it’s short notice. But it’s not like he had to learn any real plays or anything.

Well, that was a short retirement. Brett Favre-like, even.

Just hours after the Giants announced the retirement of quarterbacks coach Chris Palmer, it was revealed that Palmer will unretire to become the next coach of the UFL’s New York Sentinels. According to MSG.com, Palmer will replace Ted Cottrell for the franchise that will apparently be moving to Hartford next season.

According to one NFL source, Palmer had been offered the job weeks ago, but wanted to take some time to consider all his options. The appeal of the UFL job was a shorter season, shorter hours during the season, an ability to control his own workload, and a chance to live closer to his Connecticut home.

Meanwhile, out in Arizona, former Giants QB Kurt Warner really did retire today - at least from playing … and at least for now. He of course started nine games for the Giants in 2004, holding the job until the Giants decided then-rookie Eli Manning was ready.

“Kurt has had an outstanding career and should be proud of his many accomplishments,” Manning said today in a statement released by the Giants. “He was a great teammate when I came in as a rookie and I appreciate all he did. He always took football very seriously. He prepared very hard, competed and always wanted to play his best. He is really just a true professional and was very good to me in my time when I became a starter.

“I wish him well in retirement and I know because of the type of person he is, he will go on to do great things.”

“Kurt Warner was a tremendous example for our football team when he was here,” Tom Coughlin added. “He is a pro’s pro. He did an outstanding job with Eli when the two of them competed for the job and then after Eli took over as the starter. Even then Kurt continued to mentor and support Eli during his rookie season. Kurt was great for me and for this team.

“My hat and the hat of the entire NFL should be off to Kurt. The contribution that Kurt and Brenda and their family have made in every community they have been in has been tremendous. As outstanding a football player as Kurt is, he is a better person than he is a player.”

When Chris Palmer was hired to coach the Giants quarterbacks in 2007, the franchise wasn’t sure what it had in Eli Manning. He was an erratic young player with unfulfilled potential.

Three years later, Manning is a Super Bowl-winning, Pro Bowl quarterback. And now he’s on his own.

Palmer announced his retirement today after 20 years in the NFL, including the last three as the quarterbacks coach of the Giants. Those were three of Manning’s finest seasons, and clearly the 60-year-old coach was a big reason why.

“Chris did an outstanding job coaching Eli,” Tom Coughlin said in a statement released by the Giants. “He has been Eli’s coach and confidant in the years that he’s been here. Eli and Chris had a very good working relationship.”

“Over the last three years we’ve had some great success and I’ve improved as a quarterback,” Manning said. “He’s a terrific coach when it comes to technique. He’s great not only on the field but also in the meeting room. I’m really sorry to see him go.”

Palmer, who was Coughlin’s offensive coordinator in Jacksonville in 1997-98 and was the head coach of the Cleveland Browns in 1999-2000, joined the Giants before the 2007 season when then-quarterbacks coach Kevin Gilbride was promoted to offensive coordinator. By the end of that first season, Manning was engineering a remarkable Super Bowl run, completing 60.5 percent of his passes (72 for 119) for 854 yards and six touchdowns with only one interception in four postseason games.

That run peaked, of course, with Manning’s remarkable final drive in Super Bowl XLII that brought the Giants a championship and earned Manning the MVP award.

This past year, Manning put up his finest numbers, completing 62.3 percent of his passes (317 for 509) for 4,021 yards, 27 touchdowns and 14 interceptions. He became just the third Giants quarterback to top 4,000 yards and he’s the only quarterback in franchise history with five straight 3,000-yard seasons and five straight 20-touchdown seasons.

“It was very rewarding to me to work with Eli, because you had a player who grew every year,” Palmer said. “We won the Super Bowl. He was a guy that you looked forward to coming to work with every day, because he was going to challenge you and he was going to look for ways to get better. We hit it off from Day 1.”

It’s not clear how the Giants will replace Palmer, who clearly took some time to ponder his decision since the Giants season ended three weeks ago.

“I had a great run with the Giants,” Palmer said. “I want to thank the Maras and the Tisches for three great years. I enjoyed my time there very much. And it was not only the players, but the people and the organization. It was a very, very good situation for me.”

Perry Fewell may have inherited the worst Giants defense since 1966, but he doesn’t believe he inherited a major rebuilding project. In fact, he said the unit he’s been given is definitely “workable challenge” and that he has enough talent in place to fix what went wrong last year.

“I think we have some talent here,” Fewell said today on his first conference call with the New York media. “I think the strength of our football team looks like our defensive front. If we can stay healthy in the secondary as well as linebacker, I think we have some talent.”

Fewell was long on coachspeak and short on specifics in his meeting with the media. But here are a few snippets from the conference call (I’ll be back later with a more complete recap of what he said):

• Fewell said he was disappointed that he didn’t get more than one interview for the Buffalo Bills coaching job after leading them to a 3-4 record down the stretch as their interim coach. “I thought I did a good job in the interview process in first time, so yes, I did expect a second interview.”

• He would not commit to running the Tampa 2 scheme that he ran in Buffalo, or any scheme for that matter until he completes his evaluation of the Giants’ defensive players. “I’m currently evaluating that,” he said. “(I’m) just looking at our players, just trying to get what they do best and what I can bring to the table to help them do what they do best better.”

• Fewell said he has had a chance to talk to some of his players, mostly members of the defensive line. He said he does not know yet who will be the leader of his unit. “Each year that person evolves,” he said. “If we want to be a winning defense, I expect someone to rise to the top.”

• Fewell called the Bills’ defense from the press box as the defensive coordinator, but when he was interim coach he called it from the sidelines. He said “I’m comfortable doing either/or” and did not commit to either one.

• Fewell sounded like he believes Osi Umenyiora should be a full-time player - - or at least a full-time part of the defensive line rotation - - next year. “Osi looks like a football player,” Fewell said. “And when you have a football player obviously you want him to be on the field all the time.”

• Fewell was non-committal on the status of middle linebacker Antonio Pierce, who is still recovering from a herniated disc in his neck. “I don’t know the status of his injury right now,” Fewell said. “We’ll just have to wait and see how that plays out.”

• Fewell did not make it sound like he had much of a choice in keeping the Giants’ defensive coaching staff in place. He also said he had only “some input” in the hiring yesterday of new defensive line coach Robert Nunn.