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HISTORY in Hawaii ]] 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. Pro Bowl MVP The first Most Valuable Player award (or Most Outstanding Player) 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, only one MVP award has been presented (though three times this award has been presented to multiple players). 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, the players generally take the contest much less seriously than the average regular season games. Conventional wisdom holds that they tend to "play soft" to avoid serious injuries which could impede or end their football careers, although there have been some notable exceptions (see below). 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, contrary to popular opinion this "soft" Pro Bowl attitude is a recent change. The vast majority of early Pro Bowls beginning with the merger were relatively low scoring, 20 of 26 games from the 1970 season through 1995 featuring less than 45 points. During the decade of NFC dominance of the Super Bowl from the mid-'80s through mid-'90s, the Pro Bowl became a type of grudge match for the AFC and produced some of the most brutally physical games of the entire season, with scores like 10-6, 15-6 and 17-3. Once the AFC re-established conference parity the Pro Bowl became much looser and offensive-minded, with 8 of the 9 games between the 1996 and 2004 seasons producing at least 49 points, and an average of 64.1. To demonstrate how dramatic the change has been, in the late '80s through mid '90s the Pro Bowl over/under betting line was always in the 39-41 range, and generally bet toward the under by Las Vegas wise guys. The 2007 Pro Bowl had an over/under of 65. Even now 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 touchdown, the only blocked punt returned in Pro Bowl history. Also in the 2007 Pro Bowl Sean Taylor laid a crushing blow on Brian Moorman during an attempted fake punt. This may be a trend perpetuated by the safety position, however Drew Brees dislocated his left (non-throwing) elbow in the 2007 game, after being tripped up by Terrell Suggs . PRO BOWL UNIFORMS (#18) before the 2006 Pro Bowl .]] 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 for the NFC or solid red for the AFC, or a white jersey with blue for the NFC or a white jersey with red accents for the AFC (away). While it has been speculated that the color of Pro Bowl jerseys is determined by the winner of the Super Bowl, this is untrue. The design of Pro bowl uniforms is changed every two years, and the color and white jerseys are rotated along with the design change. This has been Pro Bowl tradition since the switch to team specific helmets in the early 90s. The two year switch was originally created as a marketing ploy by Nike, and has been continued by Reebok, who won the merchandising contract in 2002. 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 with white jerseys and red pants, while the NFC's white helmets were paired with blue jerseys and white pants. Two players with the same number who are elected to the Pro Bowl can wear the same number for that game; however, usually one player wears a different number, usually the more experienced player has numerical rights. Prior to a few years ago, all players were required to wear different numbers, regardless of what jersey number they wore on their regular team. This changed a few years ago, when players wore the jersey number on their regular team jersey, thus initially resulting in virtually every wide receiver on the field being numbered 80 or 81, a situation that, predictably, created significant confusion. Thus, it is recommended-- although not required-- that players use different jersey numbers. NFL ALL-STAR GAMES (1939-1942) No Most Valuable Player awards were presented during these games
NFL PRO BOWLS (1951-70) AFC-NFC PRO BOWLS (1971-PRESENT)
TRIVIA NFL Pro Bowls (1951-70)
AFC-NFC Pro Bowl (1971-present)
Teams with the most players voted to the Pro Bowl (since 2004) 2004 Chiefs/ Ravens 8 2005 Eagles 10 2006 Colts 7 2007 Chargers 10
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