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In professional American football, the Pro Bowl is the all-star game of the National Football League (NFL). From the merger with the rival American Football League (AFL) in 1970 up through 2013, 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). Since 2014, the teams were not based on the two conferences, and are instead chosen by two team captains (honorary captains who are each Hall of Fame players) in a televised "schoolyard pick" four days prior to the game. Unlike most other North American sports leagues, which hold their all-star games roughly midway through their respective regular seasons, the Pro Bowl is played around the end of the NFL season. Between the 1970 merger and 2009, it was usually held on the weekend after the Super Bowl. Since 2010, the Pro Bowl has been played on the weekend one week after the Conference Championship games, one week before the Super Bowl, and players from the two teams going for the Super Bowl do not participate. The NFL's all-star game has a tattered image. It is the only major all-star game that draws lower TV ratings than its regular-season games, although the game draws similar ratings to other major all-star games such as the Major League Baseball All-Star Game. However, the biggest concern of teams is 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." ==History of the Pro Bowl== The first "Pro All-Star Game," featuring the all-stars of the 1938 season (as well as three players from the Hollywood Stars and Los Angeles Bulldogs, who were not members of the league), was played on January 15, 1939 at Los Angeles's Wrigley Field. 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 would not be 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 divisions 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 division champions.〔 The first 21 games of the series (1951–1972) were played in Los Angeles, California. 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, with the new rule 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 (see below). 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 (the 2013 Pro Bowl ), he was "not inclined to play it anymore."〔(Players defend Pro Bowl after 62-35 NFC win ). ''Associated Press''. Retrieved January 28, 2013.〕 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 will 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.〔http://nflcommunications.com/2014/04/09/2015-pro-bowl-to-be-played-in-arizona-2016-pro-bowl-slated-for-hawaii/〕 The game returns to Hawaii in 2016. It was also announced that the "unconferenced" format will continue. For 2017, the league is considering a bid to host the game at Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, which if approved will be the first time the game has been hosted outside the United States. The NFL is also considering future Pro Bowls in Mexico and Germany. The NFL hopes that by leveraging international markets with the star power of Pro Bowls, international popularity and viewership will increase. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Pro Bowl」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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