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encyclopedia
In professional
American football, the Pro Bowl
is the
all-star game of the
National Football League (NFL). It is
played at the end of the
season after the
Super Bowl, the league championship
game. Since the
merger with the rival
American Football League (AFL) in 1970,
it has been officially called the AFC-NFC
Pro Bowl, matching players in the
American Football Conference (AFC)
against those in the
National Football Conference (NFC). The
game has been played at
Aloha Stadium in
Honolulu, Hawaii, USA since January
1980.
History
A postseason All-Star game between the
new league champion and a team of
professional all-stars was added to the NFL
schedule at the end of the 1938 season. On
January 15, 1939, at
Wrigley Field in
Los Angeles, California, the
New York Giants won the first "Pro
All-Star Game", 13-10, defeating a team of
players from NFL teams and two independent
clubs, the Los Angeles Bulldogs and the
Hollywood Stars.
This format continued for the next four
seasons, except that the all-star team now
consisted solely of NFL players. In January
1942, in the aftermath of Pearl Harbor, the
game was moved from Los Angeles to the
Polo Grounds in
New York City. The last "Pro All-Star
Game" was held in December 1942. With the
wartime NFL playing a reduced schedule
starting in 1943, the series was abandoned.
The NFL revived the game (now dubbed the
"Pro Bowl") in January 1951, after
the 1950 season. The game was now a contest
between conference all-star teams: American
vs. National (1951-53) and Eastern vs.
Western (1954-70). The rival AFL, meanwhile,
staged
its own All-Star Game from 1962-70,
using the same East vs. West format. The AFL
departed from this format once, in the
January 1966 game, when the league champion
Buffalo Bills played all-stars from the
rest of the league.
After the
AFL-NFL Merger of 1970, the name of the
NFL's all-star game was changed to the
"AFC-NFC Pro Bowl". Since the merger,
the head coaches of the teams that lost in
the AFC and NFC championship games have been
selected as the coaches for the respective
Pro Bowl squads - a compromise that arose
from the decision to discontinue the
Playoff Bowl, which had it been
retained, would have matched up the two
teams that lost the conference title games.
Currently, players are voted into the Pro
Bowl by the coaches, the players themselves,
and the fans. Each group's ballots count for
one third of the votes. The fans vote online
at the NFL's official site.
There are also replacements that go to
the game should any selected player be
unable to play due to injuries. Prior to
1995, only the coaches and the players made
Pro Bowl selections.
Trivia
NFL Pro Bowls
(1951-70)
- The National/Western Conference won
13 of 20 games played against the
American/Eastern Conference.
- Of interesting note is that in the
20 seasons of the format, the
Western/National Conference won both the
Pro Bowl and the NFL Championship game 9
times, while the Eastern/American won
both 2 times. In the years they have
split, the East won the Pro Bowl and
West won the NFL title 5 times, while
the reverse has occurred 4 times.
AFC-NFC Pro
Bowl (1971-present)
- Of interesting note is that in the
37 seasons since the
AFL-NFL Merger, the NFC has won both
the Pro Bowl and the
Super Bowl 9 times, while the AFC
has won both 9 times as well. In the
years they have split, the AFC has won
the Pro Bowl and NFC won the Super Bowl
10 times, while the reverse has occurred
9 times.
-
Buffalo Bills and
Cleveland Browns players have won 4
MVP awards, more than any other teams.
The
Los Angeles/St. Louis Rams have won
3, while 10 teams have won 2, and 13
teams have won 1 each. The
Arizona Cardinals,
Baltimore Ravens,
Carolina Panthers,
Denver Broncos and
Houston Texans have never had a
player win an MVP award. The Cardinals
did however have two players win MVP
awards during the 1951-70 Pro Bowl era.
-
Quarterbacks have won 13 MVP awards;
wide receivers are second with 7.
- Only 2 AFC-NFC Pro Bowls have gone
to overtime. Both have been won by the
AFC in overtime with field goals.
- Due to the rescheduling of
Super Bowl XXXVI in the wake of
9/11,, the 2002 game was moved from
Sunday to the following Saturday, one
week later.
Teams with the
most players voted to the Pro Bowl (since
2004)
2004 Chiefs/ Ravens 8/p>
2005 Eagles 10
2006 Colts 7
2007 Chargers 10
- The single-season record for most
players voted to the Pro Bowl from one
team is the 1993 Dallas Cowboys, with
eleven.
