History Of NFL Europe

NFL Europe League (simply called NFL Europe and known in its final season as NFL Europa League) was a professional American football league that functioned as the developmental minor league of the National Football League. Originally founded in 1989 as the World League of American Football (or WLAF), the league was envisioned as a transatlantic league encompassing teams from both North America and Europe. Initially, the WLAF consisted of seven teams in North America and three in Europe. It began play in 1991 and lasted for two seasons before suspending operations; while the league had been "wildly popular" in Europe, it failed to achieve success in North America. After a two-year hiatus, it returned as a six-team European league, with teams based in England, Germany, the Netherlands, Scotland, and Spain. NFL Europa was dissolved in 2007 due to its continued unprofitability and the NFL's decision to shift its focus towards hosting regular-season games in Europe; at the time of its closure, the league consisted of five German teams and one team based in the Netherlands.

The league operated under rules nearly identical to the NFL, but featured some differences and experimental rules changes designed to appeal to fans of association football (soccer) and rugby football. NFL teams were incentivized to allocate players through the granting of additional training camp positions for each allocated player, and each team in NFL Europe was required to employ a number of "local" players. Most of the league's players were American, with "local" players tending to be converted rugby or soccer players playing at the punter or placekicker positions. Several NFL Europe alumni – including quarterbacks Brad Johnson, Kurt Warner, and Jake Delhomme – went on to have successful careers in the NFL, and two NFL Europe alumni (Adam Vinatieri and Dante Hall) made the National Football League 2000s All-Decade Team.

The league's schedule went through several formats throughout its existence, but each season always culminated in the championship World Bowl game. In its initial run, each team played a ten-game schedule, and the winners of each of the three divisions (Europe, North America East, and North America West), along with the team with the best record that didn't win a division, would play in a four-team playoff. Following its revival as a six-team European league, the ten-game schedule was retained as double round-robin regular season. From 1995 to 1997, the World Bowl was played between the team with the best record in the first half of the season and the team with the best record in the second half of the season; from 1998 on, the two teams with the best records across the entire season played in the World Bowl. The Frankfurt Galaxy – the only team to play all 15 seasons of the league's existence – won the most World Bowl titles (four) and recorded the most World Bowl appearances (eight), while the final league title was won by the Hamburg Sea Devils.

In 1974, the National Football League announced plans to launch a professional American football league in Europe, the Intercontinental Football League (IFL). Aiming for a launch in the spring of 1975, the IFL would feature six teams (located in Istanbul, Rome, Munich, Berlin, Vienna, and Barcelona, respectively) and would be a satellite league of the NFL, with initial funds made by the NFL owners and the rosters consisting of "second-line athletes and rookies from established NFL teams". The brainchild of Bob Kap, the proposed league had already sold six franchises and had secured the rights to loan players from the NFL. The league had also pre-selected four more cities for expansion teams, and Al Davis and Tex Schramm were assigned to head the committee that would put the league together. The IFL did not materialize – the Pro Football Researchers Association attributed this failure to Europe not being ready for American football, potential competition with the World Football League (WFL), a players' strike during the summer of 1974, and the recession. Another factor was the turmoil in Europe in 1974: Turkey had invaded Cyprus, the American ambassador to Cyprus had been assassinated, Basque separatists had assassinated the prime minister of Spain, and terrorist groups like the Red Brigades had engaged in kidnapping. The State Department discouraged NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle from pursuing the league, and the IFL also suffered a potentially fatal blow when Pan American World Airways, who Kap had brought on as a sponsor, pulled out of the project. Ultimately, Rozelle deemed the creation of the league "impractical".

By 1980, the popularity of American football was increasing in Europe without any push by the NFL. The NFL capitalized on this newfound interest by holding American Bowl games (pre-season exhibition contests held overseas), and the popularity of these games, particularly in London, led to a renewed interest from Rozelle in creating an American football league in Europe. In 1989, the NFL announced plans to create an international spring football league. The NFL initially wanted the new league to be known as the International Football League, but it had to change the name after discovering that the name was already owned by Donald Trump and Charley Finley, who were allegedly in the process of forming their own league (which would never come to fruition). The name World League of American Football (WLAF) was eventually settled on; this name was chosen to avoid associating it with the dissolved World Football League, and the term "American football" was included in the league's name because "football" in Europe typically refers to association football, known in the United States as soccer. The NFL and WLAF attempted to downplay its status as a minor league and refused to acknowledge the WLAF as a farm league of the NFL. The NFL approved the creation of the WLAF in July 1989, with Schramm to head up the project and the league expected to begin play in 1990 or 1991. The league was expected to have 12 teams (six in the United States, four in Europe, one in Canada and one in Mexico), and it secured a two-year television deal with ABC and a four-year television deal with USA Network to air regular and post-season games. Schramm was fired as league president in October 1990 due to differences between him and the NFL as to the direction the WLAF would take; Schramm had wanted the WLAF to be an "independent, major international league which would be strong enough to stand on its own feet", while the NFL had wanted the WLAF to be a small league with close ties to the NFL.

On November 14, 1990, the WLAF announced it would begin play in 1991 with ten teams (six of them in the United States, three of them in Europe, and one in Canada) split into three divisions (North America West, North America East, and Europe). A 50-game schedule stretching from March 23, 1991, to May 27, 1991, was agreed upon, and a draft was held from February 14, 1991, to February 24, 1991.[6] Unlike the NFL draft, the World League draft was a position-by-position draft – potential draftees were divided into ten position groups, meaning each of the ten teams would have the number-one pick at a position group. All players were to receive a base salary of $20,000, but players could receive more money by meeting performance-based incentives with a maximum total salary of $100,000. Each NFL team could allocate up to four players to the WLAF, although only two, the New Orleans Saints and Kansas City Chiefs opted to do so.

The World League of American Football, described by The New York Times as the "first trans-Atlantic major sports league", began play on March 23, 1991, with three games held in Frankfurt, Germany, Birmingham, Alabama, and Sacramento, California, respectively. After the conclusion of the regular season, the WLAF playoffs were held, featuring the three division champions (London Monarchs, New York/New Jersey Knights, and Birmingham Fire) and one wild-card team (Barcelona Dragons). London and Barcelona won their playoff games to meet in World Bowl '91 at Wembley Stadium, which London won 21–0.

Following its first season, the World League of American Football was at risk of folding. It suffered a loss of nearly $7 million, and none of its teams made a profit. In addition to the monetary loss for the league, television ratings on ABC and USA network were poor. According to Dan Rooney, the NFL chairman of the World League, cost estimates were accurate, but the league overestimated the amount of revenue the WLAF would make. The league's television contracts were also at risk due to poor ratings, with USA Network having lost money. The WLAF averaged around 26,000 fans a game in its first season; the European teams had a higher attendance than the North American teams, bolstering the average. Ultimately, the NFL decided to bring the league back for a second season in 1992. The league name was shortened to World League by league officials, who felt the surprising success of the league in Europe made the "American football" part unnecessary, and the Raleigh-Durham Skyhawks folded, replaced by the Ohio Glory.

Although the league was "wildly popular" in Europe, with attendance averaging 45,000 for the London Monarchs, it was "ignored" in the United States. The World League suspended play for the 1993 and 1994 season before returning in 1995 as a six-team, exclusively European league. All three of the original European teams returned along with three new teams (the Amsterdam Admirals, Rhein Fire, and Scottish Claymores). Each team was required to have seven "local" players on their 40-man roster. Fox became a co-owner of the WLAF and a major financial contributor in return for broadcasting rights. The league was renamed the NFL Europe League (NFLEL) in 1998, and the London Monarchs were renamed the England Monarchs in an attempt to spur attendance, which had fallen below 10,000 per game. The Monarchs would fold the following season and were replaced by the Berlin Thunder.

NFL Europe commemorated its 10th season in 2002, but still remained far from being profitable. The league announced a three-year with the soccer club FC Barcelona to jointly promote American football in Europe and soccer in the United States; the Barcelona Dragons franchise was renamed FC Barcelona Dragons. The collaboration with FC Barcelona would prove to be unsuccessful, however, and the Barcelona Dragons would fold after the 2003 season due to declining attendance. The team's attendance had fallen to under 7,000 per game, a 50% decline since the 1997 season, when the team had won the World Bowl. The Dragons were replaced by the Cologne Centurions in 2004, and the following year the Scottish Claymores folded; although the team boasted the largest following of any Scottish sports team outside the Old Firm, averaging 10,799 per game, the league had determined an additional German team could bring in 30,000 per game.

The Claymores were replaced the following year by the Hamburg Sea Devils, which left the Amsterdam Admirals as the only team in the league not to be based in Germany. This was part of a strategic pivot to Germany, which had been the most receptive country to the league and the sport in general. Accordingly, the league changed its name to NFL Europa in 2006, ahead of the league's 15th season, to reflect the league's focus on Germany and the Netherlands.

On July 29, 2007, less than a week after World Bowl XV, the NFL announced the closure of NFL Europa. The league had been losing a reported US$30 million a year, and the NFL had decided to shift their strategy in marketing football abroad towards holding NFL regular-season games outside the United States. The NFL owners who funded the league were reportedly dissatisfied with NFL Europa's lack of revenue as well as its decreasing success in player development. The league had nearly folded in 2003, when eight of the 32 NFL owners voted against funding it, one short of the nine votes needed to end the league, and its gradual progression into a German-dominated league had run counter to the NFL's goals of selling merchandise throughout the European continent. The league's inability to garner a live television contract with local media markets also played a role in its demise, as the potential revenue from a deal could have helped the league financially.

Andrei S. Markovits and Lars Rensmann described the league as an "abysmal failure", noting its poor quality of play, frequent name changes, and franchise relocations as well as the accessibility of regular NFL games in Europe as reasons for its collapse. Len Pasquarelli of ESPN.com noted that the league had strayed from its original goal, with the allocation system of players gradually being abused to amass training camp exemptions rather than to develop players. John Mara, the co-owner of the New York Giants, said that the league "had some useful purpose in developing players" and that it helped the NFL determine that there was an interest in American football in Europe.

Looking back on NFL Europe in 2017, Kevin Seifert of ESPN.com noted its strong record in developing quarterbacks: Kurt Warner (a Super Bowl champion and two-time MVP), Brad Johnson (who won a Super Bowl in 2002 with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers), Jake Delhomme (who led the Carolina Panthers to an NFC championship in 2003), and journeyman quarterback Jon Kitna all spent time in NFL Europe. Two NFL Europe alumni (kicker Adam Vinatieri and return specialist Dante Hall) were included on the NFL's 2000s All-Decade Team. The league also provided an opportunity for the NFL to experiment with rules and to develop officials and coaches. Some NFL coaches and executives have suggested reviving the concept of a developmental league, and several independent leagues have been created to fill the need, but with little success. At a press conference before Super Bowl LI, league commissioner Roger Goodell said the NFL had been "actively considering" creating a new developmental league.

Since the closure of NFL Europa, the NFL has held regular-season games annually in London and has also hosted regular-season games in Mexico City and Toronto. The league is pursuing the goal of a franchise in London, as well as potential regular-season games in China. In 2021, the NFL announced it was looking for partners to host a regular-season game in Germany. In 2022, the league announced four regular-season games would be held in Germany, the first set for November 13, 2022 between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Seattle Seahawks to be played at Munich's Allianz Arena. NFL.com writer Judy Battista noted Germany was the "fastest-growing international community" for the league, and attributed this in part to the popularity of the former NFL Europe's German teams, but argued the large number of expats as well as the American military presence were greater factors.

In 2007, fans and former members of the Frankfurt Galaxy – the most successful of NFL Europe's teams on the field and in crowd attendance – created the Frankfurt Universe. The new team was promoted to the German Football League 2 in 2011, and won promotion to the German Football League (GFL) in 2015. The European League of Football (ELF), a pan-European league that began play in 2021, signed an agreement with the NFL allowing them to utilize the branding of the former teams of NFL Europe. The ELF's Barcelona Dragons, Berlin Thunder, Cologne Centurions, Hamburg Sea Devils, Frankfurt Galaxy, and Rhein Fire all share the names and imagery of their NFL Europe predecessors.

Sources

https://www.pro-football-reference.com/

https://www.profootballarchives.com/index.html

https://americanfootballdatabase.fandom.com/wiki/Football_Wiki

https://www.gridiron-uniforms.com/GUD/controller/controller.php?action=main

https://www.profootballhof.com/hall-of-famers/

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The Story And Significance Of Clarence (Ace) Parker - The NFL's Most Valuable Player In 1940

Clarence McKay "Ace" Parker was an American football and baseball player and coach. He played professional football as a quarterback in the National Football League for the Brooklyn Dodgers (1937–1941) and Boston Yanks (1945) and in the All-America Football Conference (AAFC) for the New York Yankees. He was an All-American halfback at Duke University in 1936. Parker also played Major League Baseball during 1936 and 1937 with the Philadelphia Athletics. He served as the head baseball coach at Duke from 1953 to 1966. Parker was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1955 and the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1972.

Parker was drafted by the Brooklyn Dodgers as the third pick of the second round in the 1937 NFL draft. Sammy Baugh was the only passer drafted ahead of Parker. Parker, who played for the Philadelphia Athletics of Major League Baseball beginning in 1937, originally had no intention of playing in the NFL. Baseball was the glamour pro sport at the time and the NFL had a rough, vulgar reputation. But perhaps because of his .117 batting average that year, he asked for and received permission from the A's to play football. Parker thus became a true two-sport phenomenon, playing both Major League Baseball and NFL football in both 1937 and 1938. Parker, playing various infield positions, batted .179 over two seasons with the A's, scoring 20 runs with 25 RBI over 94 games. Parker was the first American League player (and second player overall, behind National Leaguer Eddie Morgan) of only a handful of Major League Baseball players to hit a home run as a pinch-hitter in their first at bat.

When Parker joined the Dodgers in 1937, Brooklyn had been a perennial NFL cellar-dweller in the East Conference since 1930. With his running, passing, and punting ability, he brought them instant credibility. He led the team in passing in 1937 and every year he played. In 1938, he led Brooklyn to a .500 record and led the NFL in passing yards with 865. When legendary coach Jock Sutherland joined the Dodgers in 1940, Parker's career took off. In 1940, he threw for 817 yards and 10 touchdowns, rushed for 306 yards, caught 3 passes, including 2 for touchdowns, and led the league in points after touchdowns. The Dodgers finished only one game out of first, with an 8–3 record, and Parker was named the NFL MVP. In 1941, Parker continued to shine, but the Dodgers again finished second to the New York Giants, despite beating their New York rivals twice during the season. Parker's NFL career went on hold in 1942, as he, like many NFL players, left football to enlist in the Armed Services. After serving for over two years, Parker returned to the NFL, this time with the short-lived Boston Yanks, but at age 33, he took on a minor role.

He rejoined the former owner of the Dodgers, Dan Topping, in 1946 as part of the New York Yankees of the new All-America Football Conference (AAFC). Coached by former Washington Redskins coach Ray Flaherty and led by Parker, the Yankees won the AAFC East, giving Parker his only division title in pro football. The Yankees met the powerful Cleveland Browns in the championship game. The Yankees played well, but eventually succumbed to the Browns. Parker was 8 of 18 passing, for only 81 yards and an interception. Parker retired after the game, completing a fine career at age 34. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame and the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame in 1972.

After his playing days, Parker became the head baseball coach (1953–1966) and assistant football coach (1947–1965) at Duke University. He was manager of the Durham Bulls from 1949 to 1952, serving as player-manager for the first three seasons and finishing with a record of 303–266 (.533). He was Piedmont League manager of the year in 1949 and 1951. He was also a founding member of the Elizabeth Manor Golf and Country Club in Portsmouth, Virginia.

On August 13, 2008, Parker was part of the inaugural class inducted into the Hampton Roads Sports Hall of Fame, honoring athletes, coaches and administrators who made contributions to sports in Southeastern Virginia.

At the time of his death, Parker was the oldest living member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, the oldest living former professional football player and the last living person to play on the same major league baseball field as Baseball Hall of Fame member Rogers Hornsby. On May 7, 1937, Parker appeared for the Philadelphia Athletics while Hornsby played one of his last games for the St. Louis Browns.[4] Before his death, Parker and Hall of Famer Bobby Doerr were the last men to play on the same field as baseball immortal Lou Gehrig.

Parker died the morning of November 6, 2013 at the age of 101. He is the first member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame to have lived past their 100th birthday.

Sources

https://www.pro-football-reference.com/

https://www.profootballarchives.com/index.html

https://americanfootballdatabase.fandom.com/wiki/Football_Wiki

https://www.gridiron-uniforms.com/GUD/controller/controller.php?action=main

https://www.profootballhof.com/hall-of-famers/

Bowling, Lewis (November 2013). "The Ace of them all: Duke legend Ace Parker passes away at age 101; was the oldest living Pro Football Hall of Famer". GoDuke the Magazine. 5 (3). Winston-Salem, North Carolina: Blue Devil IMG Sports Network: 14–16.

 "Ace Parker Celebrates 100th Birthday Today – Duke University Blue Devils | Official Athletics Site". GoDuke.com. Retrieved August 12, 2012.

 "1937 NFL Draft Listing". Pro-Football-Reference.com. Retrieved March 21, 2023.

 "Pinch Hitting Records". baseball-almanac.com. Retrieved April 4, 2012.

 "Ace Parker dead at 101 - Pro Football Hall of Fame Official Site". www.profootballhof.com. Retrieved November 9, 2018.

 "May 7, 1937 Philadelphia Athletics at St. Louis Browns Box Score and Play by Play". Baseball-Reference.com. May 7, 1937. Retrieved August 12, 2012.

 "April 26, 1938 New York Yankees at Philadelphia Athletics Play by Play and Box Score". Baseball-Reference.com. April 26, 1938. Retrieved August 12, 2012.

History Of The Pro Bowl

The National Football League All-Star Game (1939–1942), Pro Bowl (1951-2022), or Pro Bowl Games (starting in 2023) is an annual event held by the National Football League featuring the league's star players.

The format has changed throughout the years. Between 1939 and 1942, the NFL experimented with all-star games pitting the league's champion against a team of all-stars. The first official Pro Bowl was played in January 1951, matching the top players in the American/Eastern Conference against those in the National/Western Conference. From the merger with the rival American Football League (AFL) in 1970 up through 2013 and through 2017, it was officially called the AFC–NFC Pro Bowl, matching the top players in the American Football Conference (AFC) against those in the National Football Conference (NFC). From 2014 through 2016, the NFL experimented with an unconferenced format, where the teams were selected by two honorary team captains (who are each in the Hall of Fame), instead of selecting players from each conference. The players were picked in a televised "schoolyard pick" prior to the game.

For years, the game suffered from lack of interest due to perceived low quality, with observers and commentators expressing their disfavor with it. It drew lower television ratings than regular season NFL games, although the game drew similar ratings to the all-star games of the other major North American sports leagues, such as the Major League Baseball All-Star Game. However, the biggest concern was to avoid injuries to the star players. The Associated Press wrote that players in the 2012 game were "hitting each other as though they were having a pillow fight". Despite these criticisms, however, players who were selected to the Pro Bowl were nonetheless honored in a similar standing to their counterparts in the other leagues, and being named to it is considered to be a significant accomplishment for any player. In September 2022, the NFL announced that the Pro Bowl game would switch to a non-contact flag football game in 2023, as well as a partnership with Peyton Manning's Omaha Productions to revamp Pro Bowl week as the "Pro Bowl Games".

Unlike the other major North American sports leagues, which hold their all star weekends roughly midway through their regular seasons, the NFL has held theirs at or near the end of NFL season. Before the merger, the game was played annually after the NFL Championship Game. Between 1970 and 2009, the Pro Bowl was usually held the weekend after the Super Bowl. From 2010 to 2022, it was played the Sunday before the Super Bowl; as a result, players from the two teams competing in the Super Bowl did not participate.

The first "Pro All-Star Game", featuring the all-stars of the 1938 season (as well as three players from the Los Angeles Bulldogs and Hollywood Bears, who were not members of the league), was played on January 15, 1939, at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles. The NFL All-Star Game was played again in Los Angeles in 1940 and then in New York and Philadelphia in 1941 and 1942 respectively. Although originally planned as an annual contest, the all-star game was discontinued after 1942 because of travel restrictions put in place during World War II. During the first five all-star games, an all-star team would face that year's league champion. The league champion won the first four games before the all-stars were victorious in the final game of this early series.

The concept of an all-star game was not revived until June 1950, when the newly christened "Pro Bowl" was approved. The game was sponsored by the Los Angeles Publishers Association. It was decided that the game would feature all-star teams from each of the league's two conferences rather than the league champion versus all-star format which had been used previously. This was done to avoid confusion with the Chicago College All-Star Game, an annual game which featured the league champion against a collegiate all-star team. The teams would be led by the coach of each of the conference champions. Immediately prior to the Pro Bowl, following the 1949 season, the All-America Football Conference, which contributed three teams to the NFL in a partial merger in 1950, held its own all-star game, the Shamrock Bowl.

The first 21 games of the series (1951–1972) were played in Los Angeles. The site of the game was changed annually for each of the next seven years before the game was moved to Aloha Stadium in Halawa, Hawaii, for 30 straight seasons from 1980 through 2009. The 2010 Pro Bowl was played at Sun Life Stadium, the home stadium of the Miami Dolphins and host site of Super Bowl XLIV, on January 31, the first time ever that the Pro Bowl was held before the championship game (a decision probably due to increasingly low Nielsen ratings from being regarded as an anti-climax to the Super Bowl). With the new rule being that the conference teams do not include players from the teams that will be playing in the Super Bowl, the Pro Bowl then returned to Hawaii in 2011 but was again held during the week before the Super Bowl, where it remained for three more years.

The 2012 game was met with criticism from fans and sports writers for the lack of quality play by the players. On October 24, 2012, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell had second thoughts about the Pro Bowl, telling a Sirius XM show that if the players did not play more competitively [in the 2013 Pro Bowl], he was "not inclined to play it anymore". During the ensuing off-season, the NFL Players Association lobbied to keep the Pro Bowl, and negotiated several rule changes to be implemented for the 2014 game. Among them, the teams would no longer be AFC vs. NFC, and instead be selected by captains in a fantasy draft. For the 2014 game, Jerry Rice and Deion Sanders were chosen as alumni captains, while their captains were Drew Brees and Robert Quinn (Rice), along with Jamaal Charles and J. J. Watt (Sanders).

On April 9, 2014, the NFL announced that the 2015 Pro Bowl would be played the week before the Super Bowl at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, on January 25, 2015. The game returned to Hawaii in 2016, and the "unconferenced" format was its last.

For 2017, the league considered hosting the game at Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, which would have been the first time the game had been hosted outside the United States. The NFL was also considering future Pro Bowls in Mexico and Germany to leverage international markets. A report released May 19, 2016, indicated that the 2017 Pro Bowl would instead be hosted at a newly renovated Camping World Stadium in Orlando, Florida; Orlando beat out Brazil (which apparently did not make the final round of voting), Honolulu, Super Bowl host site Houston, and a bid from Sydney, Australia, for the hosting rights. On June 1, 2016, the league announced that it was restoring the old conference format.

Since the 2017 Pro Bowl, the NFL has also hosted a series of side events leading up to the game called the Pro Bowl Skills Showdown, which includes competitions like passing contests and dodgeball among the players.

The 2021 Pro Bowl game was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and new host Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas was held over to the 2022 Pro Bowl. The roster was still voted on and named, and alternative broadcast and streaming events were held during the week of the game.

In May 2022, Commissioner Roger Goodell questioned the future of the Pro Bowl, arguing that it "doesn't work", and that "another way to celebrate the players" was needed.[26] On September 26, 2022, it was announced that the NFL would host the 2023 event as "The Pro Bowl Games"—in partnership with Peyton Manning's Omaha Productions—which will replace the culminating event with a flag football game.

When the Pro Bowl was held after the Super Bowl, the head coaches were traditionally the head coaches of the teams that lost in the AFC and NFC championship games for the same season of the Pro Bowl in question. From 1978 through 1982, the head coaches of the highest ranked divisional champion that lost in the Divisional Playoff Round were chosen. For the 1983 Pro Bowl, the NFL resumed selecting the losing head coaches in the conference championship games. In the 1999 Pro Bowl, New York Jets head coach Bill Parcells, after his team lost to the Denver Broncos in the AFC Championship Game, had to decline due to health reasons and Jets assistant head coach Bill Belichick took his place.

When the Pro Bowl was moved to the weekend between the Conference Championship games and the Super Bowl in 2009, the team that lost in the Divisional Playoff Round with the best regular season record would have their coaching staffs lead their respective conference Pro Bowl team returning to the format used from 1978 to 1982. It remained that way through 2013; it resumed in 2017. If the losing teams of each conference had the same regular season record the coaches from the higher-seeded team will get the Pro Bowl honor. From 2014 to 2016, the Pro Bowl coaches came from the two teams with the best records that lost in the Divisional Playoffs. (In the 2015 Pro Bowl, when John Fox left his coaching job with Denver after his playoff loss to Indianapolis that year, John Harbaugh of Baltimore took over. The next year saw Green Bay's assistant coach Winston Moss took over as Mike McCarthy resigned from coaching due to illness.)

The teams are made of players from different NFL teams, so using their own uniforms would be too confusing. However, the players do wear the helmet of their respective team, but the home jerseys and pants are either a solid blue for the NFC or solid red for the AFC, with white jerseys with blue or red accents, respectively, for the away team.

The early Pro Bowl, contested by the National Football League's Eastern and Western Division stars and played at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, featured the same uniforms from the 1950s to mid-1960s; the Eastern team wore scarlet jerseys with white numerals and a white crescent shoulder stripe, white pants with red stripe, red socks, and a plain red helmet. The Western team wore white jerseys with royal-blue numerals and a Northwestern University-style Ukon triple stripe on the sleeves, white pants with blue stripe and socks and a plain blue helmet. Perhaps oddly, the Eastern team wore home dark jerseys, although the host city team, the Los Angeles Rams, were members of the Western Conference. From January 1967 to January 1970 both teams wore gold helmets with the NFL logo on the sides; the Eastern helmets featured a red-white-red tri-stripe and the Western a similar blue-white-blue tri-stripe. In fact, the players brought their own game helmets to Los Angeles, which were then spray-painted and decorated for the contest. For the 1970 game the helmets featured the '50 NFL' logo, commemorating the league's half-century anniversary.

In the earliest years of the AFC–NFC Pro Bowl, the players did not wear their unique helmets. 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. Beginning with the 1979 game, players wore the helmets of their respective teams.

Two players with the same number who were elected to the Pro Bowl could wear the same number for that game, which was not always the case in the past.

The 2008 Pro Bowl included a unique example of several players from the same team wearing the same number in a Pro Bowl. For the game, Washington Redskins players T Chris Samuels, TE Chris Cooley, and LS Ethan Albright all wore the number 21 (a number normally inappropriate for their positions) in memory of their teammate Sean Taylor, who had been murdered during the 2007 season.

On October 7, 2013, Nike unveiled the uniforms for the 2014 Pro Bowl, which revealed that the red, white and blue colors that the game uniforms bore throughout its entire history would not be used for the game. As the NFC–AFC format was not used between 2014 through 2016, team 1 sported a white uniform with bright orange and team 2 sported a gray uniform with volt green. The new uniforms received mixed reviews from fans and sports columnists alike, one even mentioning that the game would look like an "Oregon vs. Oklahoma State" game.

Since 2017, when the conference format was restored, the league took an approach similar to the NFL Color Rush initiative, in which jerseys, pants, and socks were all a uniform color (red for the AFC, blue for the NFC).

For decades, the Pro Bowl has been criticized as a glamor event more than a football game. This is due to the voluntary nature of the game, the arbitrary voting process, and the fear of player injury.

While players are financially compensated for participating in the Pro Bowl, for a star player, the pay can be less than 1% of their salary. Many star players have excused themselves from participation over the years, meaning that the very best players are not necessarily featured. Not having the best players in the Pro Bowl was exacerbated by the introduction of fan voting (see section below).

Another criticism of the game is that the players—particularly on defense—are not competing at the same level of intensity as they would during the regular season or the playoffs. This is because player injury plays a much greater part in a team's success in the NFL as compared to the other major American sports. For this reason, unlike the NBA, NHL, and MLB (which host their all-star events as a mid-season break), the Pro Bowl was historically held after the completion of the season and playoffs. This means that a player injured in the Pro Bowl would have at least six months to rehab before the next season begins. However, starting in 2010, the Pro Bowl was moved from the week after the Super Bowl to the week before it. Because of the above-noted fear of injury, players from the two teams participating in the Super Bowl were banned from participation, thus increasing the absence of star players.

With the dearth of stars making the game the subject of much derision (Sports Illustrated website refused to even include one pre-game story on the event in 2012),[citation needed] the players on the field appear to be taking it less seriously as well. In the 2012 game, the lack of defensive effort was apparent, not only to anyone watching, but to anyone who saw the score of 100 points. One NFL player watching the game said, "They probably should have just put flags on them," indicating that the quality was about on the level of flag football. Commissioner Roger Goodell stated that the game needed to improve, otherwise it would be eliminated. It is worth noting that entire teams have declined to participate after losing the conference championship, like the 2015 New England Patriots, which had seven starters on the Pro Bowl roster. This, among other factors, caused the 2016 Pro Bowl to be more of a game featuring emerging players, with a record of 133 players selected overall (including those who were absent), and ended up including rookie quarterback Jameis Winston instead of recognized veterans Tom Brady and Carson Palmer, who were both in the conversation for the 2015 NFL season MVP before losing in their respective conference finals. In 2022, Josh Allen turned down an invitation to the Pro Bowl in favor of playing in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am golf tournament, a decision he stated was to allow himself to recover from several minor injuries.

Voting by fans makes up 1/3 of the vote for Pro Bowl players. Some teams earn more selections of their players because fans often vote for their favorite team and not necessarily the best player. In the 2008 Pro Bowl, the Dallas Cowboys had thirteen players on the NFC roster, an NFL record. "If you're in a small market, no one really gets to see you play", said Minnesota Vikings cornerback Antoine Winfield, who spent much of his early career with the small-market Buffalo Bills. "If you're a quiet guy, it's hard to get the attention. You just have to work hard and play." Winfield made the Pro Bowl in 2008 after ten seasons of being shut out.

The player voting has also been subject to significant criticism. It is not uncommon for players to pick the same players over and over again; former offensive lineman (and Sports Illustrated analyst) Ross Tucker has cited politics, incumbency, personal vendettas, and compensation for injury in previous years as primary factors in players' choices. Thus, players who have seen their play decline with age can still be perennially elected to the Pro Bowl due to their popularity among other players, something particularly common among positions such as the offensive line, where few statistics are available. For example, in 2010, Baltimore Ravens linebacker Terrell Suggs admitted voting for Ryan Fitzpatrick (then the backup quarterback of the Buffalo Bills) over eventual league most valuable player Tom Brady not because he thought Fitzpatrick was the better player but as a vote of disrespect toward Brady's team, the New England Patriots.

Some players have had a surprisingly small number of Pro Bowl selections despite distinguished careers. Hall of Fame running back John Riggins was selected only once in his career from 1971 to 1985. He was not selected in the year after which he set the record for rushing touchdowns in a season and his team made it to the Super Bowl (although he did make the All-Pro team). Hall of Fame linebacker Ray Nitschke only made the Pro Bowl once, despite being named All-Pro seven times and being the MVP of the 1962 NFL Championship Game. Defensive back Ken Riley never made the Pro Bowl in his 15 seasons, even though he recorded 65 interceptions, the fourth-highest total in NFL history at the time of his retirement. Former Jacksonville Jaguars halfback Fred Taylor, who is 15th in all-time rushing yards, was elected to his only Pro Bowl in 2007, despite averaging 4.6 yards per carry for his career, better than all but five running backs ranked in the top 30 in all-time rushing. Aaron Smith made it to the Pro Bowl once in 13 years (2004) despite winning two Super Bowl rings with the Pittsburgh Steelers and being named to the Sports Illustrated 2000s All Decade Team, despite defensive teammates such as Troy Polamalu, Casey Hampton, and James Harrison being named to multiple Pro Bowls during his career; Smith would often be ranked as one of the NFL's most underrated players during his career.

The last Pro Bowl game was held at the end of the 2021 NFL season in Las Vegas.

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 Tucker, Ross. NFL Pro Bowl voting among players should be consistent. SI.com

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 "Pittsburgh Steelers: All-time underrated, overrated players". NFL.com.

The History Of The Bert Bell Benefit Bowl (Playoff Bowl)

The Playoff Bowl (officially known as the Bert Bell Benefit Bowl) was a post-season game for third place in the National Football League, played ten times following the 1960 through 1969 seasons, all at the Orange Bowl in Miami, Florida. It was originally known as the Runner-Up Bowl.

Bert Bell was the commissioner of the NFL from 1946 until his death in October 1959. He was a co-founder of the Philadelphia Eagles as well as a co-owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers during much of the 1940s. His death occurred while attending an Eagles-Steelers game in Philadelphia. Over the decade of the 1960s, the game contributed more than a million dollars to the Bert Bell players' pension fund.

All ten games in the Playoff Bowl series were contested at the Orange Bowl in Miami. The games were played in January, the week following the NFL championship game (and the collegiate Orange Bowl game on New Year's Day), except for the final year, when it was played the day before the NFL title game. The NFL's Pro Bowl (all-star game) was played the week after the Playoff Bowl.

After the 1959 season, NFL owners faced competition from the newly formed American Football League and wanted a vehicle through which to showcase more of its supposedly superior NFL professional football product on television. At the time, unlike the AFL, which had a contract with ABC-TV for nationally televised games, often double-headers, few NFL games were televised nationally during the season and there was only one scheduled post-season game, the NFL Championship Game. The Playoff Bowl was devised to match the second-place teams from the NFL's two conferences (Eastern and Western). This doubled from two to four the number of top NFL teams appearing in post-season play on national television.

The 1966 season required another game following the American Football League Championship Game and the NFL Championship Game, the first of four AFL–NFL World Championship Games between the champions of the two major Professional Football leagues for the undisputed championship. The establishment of the AFL–NFL World Championship Game (Super Bowl was not its official name until Super Bowl III) was the first phase of the AFL–NFL merger of June 1966. This new mega-game between the rival leagues was played in mid-January at a warm weather location, two weeks after the championship games for each league. The NFL's Playoff Bowl was played during the idle week, and because of AFL's equally major league status, interest in the game was waning. In addition, the arrival of the Miami Dolphins in 1966 as an expansion franchise in the AFL reduced local interest in the game.

In the 1967 season, the NFL expanded to 16 teams and four scheduled post-season contests. The NFL sub-divided its two conferences (now eight teams each) into two divisions of four teams each: The Capitol and Century divisions in the Eastern conference, and the Central and Coastal divisions in the Western conference. The four division winners advanced to the post-season, competing for their conference titles in the first round of the NFL playoffs. The winners (conference champions) advanced to the NFL championship game, the losers (conference runners-up) appeared in the Playoff Bowl to vie for third place. For the three seasons (1967–69) preceding the 1970 merger with the AFL, the loser of the NFL's third place game ended up with a peculiar record of 0-2 for that post-season. In its final season in 1969, the AFL also expanded to a four-team post-season, adding two more playoff games.

The highest attendance was over 65,500 in January 1966 for the Baltimore Colts' rout of the Dallas Cowboys; the 1965 season was the last one prior to the Dolphins starting play, the AFL–NFL merger agreement, and the creation of the Super Bowl. In January 1968 and 1969, the Super Bowl was played in the Orange Bowl the following week, which further contributed to the declining attendance for the NFL's consolation game.

When the merger was completed for the 1970 season, there was discussion about continuing the Playoff Bowl, with the losers of the AFC and NFC Championship Games playing each other during the idle week before the Super Bowl. There were now seven post-season games in the NFL (three for each conference, plus the Super Bowl), and the Pro Bowl all-star game. A "losers' game" was not necessarily attractive for the league, and the Playoff Bowl came to an end.

The ten Playoff Bowls were official third place playoff games at the time they were played.
Vince Lombardi detested the Playoff Bowl, coaching in the games following the 1963 and 1964 seasons, after winning NFL titles in 1961 and 1962. To his players, he called it "the 'Shit Bowl', ...a losers' bowl for losers." This lack of motivation may explain his Packers' rare postseason defeat in the 1964 game (January 1965) to the St. Louis Cardinals. After that loss, he fumed about "a hinky-dink football game, held in a hinky-dink town, played by hinky-dink players. That's all second place is – hinky dink."

Using the Playoff Bowl (and loss) as motivation in 1965, the Packers won the first of three consecutive NFL championships from 1965–67. As of the 2021 season, the Packers are the only NFL team ever to win three consecutive titles in the post-season era (which began in 1933). During this successful run, the Packers also won the first two Super Bowls in convincing fashion. In an ironic twist, Lombardi's final game (and victory) as head coach of the Packers was Super Bowl II, played in "hinky-dink" Miami's Orange Bowl in January 1968.

All-Pro defensive tackle Roger Brown appeared in five Playoff Bowls, the most by any player, and was on the winning side each time (Detroit Lions, 1960–61–62; Los Angeles Rams, 1967, 1969). He said playing in those seemingly meaningless contests was like having "the worst inferiority complex." He added, "I was in five of them, and to have played in it five in the ten years it was in existence is pitiful."

The Lions also hold the dubious distinction of having the most victories in the Playoff Bowl (three) along with tying for the best winning percentage at 1.000.

In its second year, the players on the winning team received $600 each, the losers $400; and the fifth year game paid $800 and $600. In its final years, the winners received $1,200 each, the losers $500.

One vestige of the Playoff Bowl remained through the 2008 season in that the head coaches of the losing teams from the conference championship games were the head coaches of their conferences' Pro Bowl teams. From 1980 to 2009, this all-star game was played at Aloha Stadium in Honolulu the Sunday following the Super Bowl. However, in 2010, the Pro Bowl moved to Miami Gardens, Florida, and was played the week before Super Bowl XLIV (as the Playoff Bowl was in the Super Bowl era).
For the 2009 season, a new rule for determining the Pro Bowl coaches resulted in the disappearance of one Playoff Bowl legacy. The coaching staffs for the 2010 Pro Bowl did not come from the losers of the conference championship games, but instead from the teams with the best regular-season records among those that lost in the divisional round of the playoffs in each conference.

Sources

https://www.pro-football-reference.com/

https://www.profootballarchives.com/index.html

https://americanfootballdatabase.fandom.com/wiki/Football_Wiki

https://www.gridiron-uniforms.com/GUD/controller/controller.php?action=main

https://www.profootballhof.com/hall-of-famers/

Sandomir, Richard (February 6, 2011). "Little Consolation in Third-Place Game". The New York Times. Retrieved February 5, 2011.

 "The NFL Used to Play a Third-Place Game, a "Losers' Bowl for Losers"". Mental Floss. 30 Jan 2014. Retrieved 31 January 2014.

 "Brown, Lions Battle Today in NFL Runner-Up Bowl". The Montgomery Advertiser. AP. January 7, 1961. p. 2B. Retrieved June 28, 2021 – via Newspapers.com.

 "'Fun Week' may be over". St. Petersburg Independent. Florida. Associated Press. January 6, 1969. p. 2C.

 Chicago Tribune (January 10, 1966). "Matte leads Colts' rout of Cowboys". Associated Press. p. 1, section 3.

 "NFL consolation game wasn't exactly a Super idea". Pasadena Star-News. Retrieved 10 March 2023. That game, the last Playoff Bowl ever, likely was the best postseason performance ever by the Rams. But don't look for it in the NFL record book. The NFL has since designated Playoff Bowl games as exhibitions.

 "Eagles favored in Playoff Bowl at Miami". Spartanburg Herald. South Carolina. Associated Press. January 6, 1962. p. 9.

 "Packers, Cards rated even for Playoff Bowl". Reading Eagle. Pennsylvania. UPI. January 2, 1965. p. 11.

 "Pride richest plum in Playoff Bowl game". Miami News. January 3, 1970. p. 1-B.

 Wyche, Steve (2009-12-28). "Pro Bowl selections, like game itself, will have new wrinkles". NFL.com. Archived from the original on 2010-01-05. Retrieved 2010-01-11.

 1961 NFL-AFL Commentator Crews[permanent dead link]

 1962 NFL-AFL Commentator Crews[permanent dead link]

 1963 NFL-AFL Commentator Crews Archived 2008-12-11 at the Wayback Machine

 1964 NFL-AFL Commentator Crews Archived 2008-12-11 at the Wayback Machine

 1965 NFL-AFL Commentator Crews Archived 2008-12-11 at the Wayback Machine

 1966 NFL-AFL Commentator Crews Archived 2008-12-11 at the Wayback Machine

 1967 NFL-AFL Commentator Crews Archived 2008-12-11 at the Wayback Machine

 1968 NFL-AFL Commentator Crews Archived 2008-12-11 at the Wayback Machine

 1969 NFL-AFL Commentator Crews Archived 2008-12-11 at the Wayback Machine