nfl pro bowl game

The Washington Redskins defensive back got a starting position on the team at free safety. He was having an outstanding season and was among the leaders in fan balloting for a team selected by a combination of fans, players and coaches.
Both conferences were dominated by players from the teams at the top of the standings. Seven teams had no Pro Bowlers, including Jacksonville (10-4) and all four in the NFC South, for the game to be played Feb. 10 in Honolulu.
Unbeaten New England had eight players voted to the AFC team, led by quarterback Tom Brady and wide receiver Randy Moss. New England linebacker Mike Vrabel made the Pro Bowl for the first time in his 11th season.
, tied for first place with Green Bay in the NFC, had 11, including quarterback Tony Romo and wide receiver Terrell Owens. Dallas dominated the fan voting, one major reason it had so many players on the squad.
One of the Cowboys, running back Marion Barber, is not a starter for Dallas although he leads the team with 871 yards rushing. That's 315 more than starter Julius Jones, but is just seventh in the NFC. But Barber has 11 touchdowns.
The Packers had four players on the team, including Brett Favre, who will start at quarterback for the NFC. It is the ninth Pro Bowl for the 38-year-old Favre, his first since 2003.
San Diego, like New England, had eight players chosen. Minnesota was second in the NFC with seven, including rookie Adrian Peterson, who leads the conference in rushing.
Taylor is the only player known to have made an all-star team posthumously in any sport since goaltender Pelle Lindbergh made the NHL All-Star game in February 1986. He had been killed in an auto accident in November, 1985 after playing eight games for the Philadelphia Flyers, for whom he had won the Vezina Trophy as the league's best goalie the previous season.
Before his death, Taylor was leading the NFL in interceptions with five.
One of those left off the team was Fred Taylor of Jacksonville, who has had four straight 100-yard rushing games.
Fred Taylor, who has rushed for 1,091 yards and has a 5.1-yard average per carry while splitting time with Maurice Jones-Drew, is the 18th leading rusher in NFL history, but has never been to the Pro Bowl. That makes him the only one of the top 43 rushers in history not to make it to the league's all-star game.
Fred Taylor anticipated that last week.
"Whatever happens, happens," he said. "They've got to tally up the votes, and however it comes out, I've got to live with it. I've always felt like I'm Pro Bowl-quality, so everything else doesn't matter."
In addition to the Jaguars, there were no Jets, Buccaneers, Saints, Panthers, Falcons or Lions. Tampa Bay is 9-5 and has clinched the NFC South and New Orleans remains in contention for a playoff spot.
The three backs chosen ahead of Fred Taylor were LaDainian Tomlinson of San Diego, Willie Parker of Pittsburgh and Joseph Addai of Indianapolis. Parker and Tomlinson have gained more yards than Taylor, but Parker is averaging 4.1 and Tomlinson, last season's league MVP, is averaging 4.7.
Addai, one of five Colts on the AFC squad, has 1,019 yards rushing, 72 yards fewer than Taylor and an average of 4.1 yards per carry, a full yard less than the 31-year-old Jacksonville star.
Three rookies made the NFC team: Peterson, who is third in the NFL with 1,278 yards rushing and first among regular backs with a 5.9 average; linebacker Patrick Willis of San Francisco; and Dallas placekicker Nick Folk.
There are 18 first-timers on the AFC team, 11 in the NFC. Offensive tackle Jonathan Ogden of Baltimore was voted to his 11th straight Pro Bowl in his 12th season.

The National Football League first played an All-Star Game on January 15, 1939 in Los Angeles. Today, this game is officially known as the AFC-NFC Pro Bowl. It is the final game of the NFL season annually. The Pro Bowl has been played at Aloha Stadium in Honolulu, Hawaii since 1980. The event has historically been held as a charity contest with very low payments to the winning and losing players. The first All-Star Game was between the 1938 NFL champions, the New York Giants, and a team of all-stars assembled from the other NFL teams plus players from two independent west coast teams, the Los Angeles Bulldogs and the Hollywood Stars. In the 1930's west coast leagues were formed, but failed. The first game was played at Wrigley Field in South-Central Los Angeles. The stadium was owned by William Wrigley of bubble-gum fame and was an exact replica of the more famous Chicago stadium. The game was played following the regular season for 5 years through 1942, with an all-NFL All-Star team providing the opposition to the league champion over the next four seasons. It was moved to the east coast in 1942 due to concerns over the war in the Pacific. The event was cancelled after the game at the close of the 1942 season.
The game was revived for the 1950 season and was played on January 14, 1951 as a contest between conference all-star teams. The game was now known as the Pro Bowl. As the NFL evolved and changed through the years, the Pro Bowl also changed in format. The opposing sides were American Conference vs. National Conference (1951-53), Eastern vs. Western (1954-1970), and AFC vs. NFC (since 1971). The fledgling American Football league also played an AFL All-Star Game from 1962-1970.
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. 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.Click on the buttons in the left margin to take a stroll through the rich history of the Pro Bowl. The game has featured the greatest NFL players of the last 65 years.
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