Pro Bowl
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Pro Bowl is the National Football League's all-star game. It is the final American football game of the NFL season and is officially called the AFC-NFC Pro Bowl. The game has been played at Aloha Stadium in Honolulu, Hawaii, USA since January 1980.
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[edit] History
A postseason All-Star game between the new league champion and a team of professional all-stars was added to the NFL schedule in January 1939, at the end of the 1938 season. In the first game at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles, California, the New York Giants beat a team made up of players from NFL teams and two independent clubs the Los Angeles Bulldogs and the Hollywood Stars. An all-NFL All-Star team and regular NFL franchise battled on the football field until the end of the 1942 season.
The NFL revived the game in January 1951, after the 1950 pro football season. It was a contest between conference all-star teams: American vs National (1951-53), Eastern vs Western (1954-1970), and AFC vs NFC (since 1971).
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.
[edit] Pro Bowl MVP
The first Most Valuable Player award in the Pro Bowl was presented in 1951. From 1957 to 1971, two awards were presented to an offensive back and a defensive lineman. In 1972, there were awards for both an offensive player and a defensive player. Since 1973, there's been only one single MVP award.
[edit] Pro Bowl attitude
Since the Pro Bowl has absolutely no effect upon players' or teams' statistics and records, and the fact that the game is played at the very end of the season, players generally take the contest much less seriously than the average regular season games. They tend to "play soft" to avoid serious injuries which could impede or end their football careers. Players commonly make weak blocks and tackles. Defensive linemen will usually simply stand up when the ball is snapped during field goals attempts and punts instead of trying to block them. This injury minimalizing attitude generally manifests in a strongly offensively weighted game, along with the willingness of players and coaches to go for big offensive plays.
With a large portion of the competitive nature of the game removed, players and the media tend to treat the game as more of a fun get-together than a hard-fought battle. The rotation of players into and out of the game also presents an opportunity for TV interviews of personalities who are only ever seen during the game from afar, or afterwards in press conferences.
However, there are certain players who treat it just like a regular game and will go for big hits and go the length of the field to make a play. These tend to be younger players but even some veterans are known. Examples from the 2004 Pro Bowl are Roy Williams' hit on Todd Heap and Ed Reed blocking a punt and returning it for a touchown, the only blocked punt so returned in Pro Bowl history.
[edit] Pro Bowl uniforms
Because the teams are made of players from different NFL teams, using their own uniforms would be too confusing. The players all wear the helmet of their team, but the jerseys and pants are either a solid blue or red for the NFC or AFC team respectively (home) or a white jersey with blue or red accents for the NFC and AFC respectively (away).
In the earliest years of the AFC-NFC Pro Bowl, the players did not wear their unique helmets, as they do now. The AFC All-Stars wore a solid red helmet with a white "A" on it, while the NFC players wore a solid white helmet with a blue "N" on it. The AFC's red helmets were paired white white jerseys and red pants, while the NFC's white helmets were paired with blue jerseys and white pants.
[edit] NFL All-Star games (1939-1942)
- No Most Valuable Player awards were presented during these games
| Date | Score |
|---|---|
| January 15, 1939 | New York Giants 13, Pro All-Stars 10 |
| January 14, 1940 | Green Bay Packers 16, NFL All-Stars 7 |
| December 29, 1940 | Chicago Bears 28, NFL All-Stars 14 |
| January 4, 1942 | Chicago Bears 35, NFL All-Stars 24 |
| December 27, 1942 | NFL All-Stars 17, Washington Redskins 14 |
- 1943-50 - No games (mainly because of World War II)
[edit] NFL Pro Bowls (1951-70)
[edit] AFC-NFC Pro Bowls (1971-present)
Overall Series tied:18-18
[edit] Playing sites
- 1939 - Wrigley Field, Los Angeles
- 1940 - Gilmore Stadium, Los Angeles (both games)
- Jan., 1942 - Polo Grounds, New York City (The game was moved from Los Angeles to New York due to war threats)
- Dec., 1942 - Shibe Park, Philadelphia
- 1951-72 - Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Los Angeles, California
- 1973 - Texas Stadium, Irving, Texas
- 1974 - Arrowhead Stadium, Kansas City, Missouri
- 1975 - Orange Bowl, Miami, Florida
- 1976 - Louisiana Superdome, New Orleans, Louisiana
- 1977 - Kingdome, Seattle, Washington
- 1978 - Tampa Stadium, Tampa, Florida
- 1979 - Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Los Angeles, California
- 1980-present - Aloha Stadium, Honolulu, Hawaii
[edit] Trivia
[edit] AFC-NFC Pro Bowl
- The AFC and NFC have split the series, each winning 18 games.
- Of interesting note is that in the 36 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 8 times. 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 players have won 4 MVP awards, more than any other team. The Los Angeles/St. Louis Rams have won 3, while 10 teams have won 2, and 12 teams have won 1 each. The Arizona Cardinals, Baltimore Ravens, Carolina Panthers, Cincinnati Bengals, Denver Broncos, and Houston Texans have never had a player win an MVP award.
- Quarterbacks have won 12 MVP awards; wide receivers are second with 7.
- John Madden has never been part of a Pro Bowl broadcast because he has a tremendous fear of flying.
- Because of the new NFL television contract, the network which airs the Super Bowl will air the Pro Bowl; the 2007 game is held on the Saturday after Super Bowl XLI because of the 2007 Grammy Awards. The 2008 game, on Fox, will revert to Sunday, because Fox has the Budweiser Shootout on the Saturday after Super Bowl XLII.
[edit] 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 has 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.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
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