The Pro Bowl is the National Football League's All-Star game. The game is the last game of the season. It's officially called the AFC-NFC Pro Bowl. The game has been played at Aloha Stadium in Honolulu, Hawaii since February 1980.

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 provided the opposition over the next four seasons, but the event was cancelled after the game at the close 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.

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.

NFL All-Star games (1939-1942)

No Most Valuable Player awards were presented during these games

• January 15, 1939 - New York Giants 13, All-Stars 10
• January 14, 1940 - Green Bay Packers 16, All-Stars 7
• December 29, 1940 - Chicago Bears 28, All-Stars 14
• January 4, 1942 - Chicago Bears 35, All-Stars 24
• December 27, 1942 - All-Stars 17, Washington Redskins 14
• 1943-50 - No games

NFL Pro Bowls (1951-70)

AFC-NFC Pro Bowls (1971-present)

Playing sites

• 1939 - Wrigley Field, Los Angeles
• 1940 - Gilmore Stadium , Los Angeles (both games)
• Jan., 1942 - Polo Grounds, New York City
• Dec., 1942 - Shibe Park, Philadelphia
• 1951-72 - Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Los Angeles
• 1973 - Texas Stadium, Irving, Texas
• 1974 - Arrowhead Stadium, Kansas City, Missouri
• 1975 - Orange Bowl, Miami, Florida
• 1976 - Superdome, New Orleans, Louisiana
• 1977 - Kingdome, Seattle, Washington
• 1978 - Tampa Stadium, Tampa, Florida
• 1979 - Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum
• 1980-present - Aloha Stadium, Honolulu, Hawaii

See also

• American Football League All-Star games