FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NFL-51 10/13/97
PRO BOWL BALLOTING BEGINS THURSDAY
Fan balloting for the 1998 AFC-NFC Pro Bowl in NFL stadiums and by computer through America Online begins this Thursday, the NFL announced today. Fans at Arrowhead Stadium will be the first to vote for this year’s game on Thursday when the San Diego Chargers visit the Kansas City Chiefs in a nationally televised game on TNT (8:00 PM ET).
The consensus ballots of NFL fans, coaches and players each count one-third towards determining the 43-player squads that will represent the American and National conferences in the game that will be played at Aloha Stadium in Honolulu, Hawaii on Sunday, February 1. The Pro Bowl will be televised live by ABC-TV at 6:00 PM ET.
The NFL is the only professional sports league that combines voting by fans, coaches and players in determining its all-star teams. In 1994, the NFL became the first league to offer voting online. The NFL’s partnership with America Online will give the service’s more than nine million subscribers a chance to cast their votes.
NFL players and coaches will cast their votes on December 8-9. The fan vote will act as a tiebreaker in case of deadlocks. This year, for the first time, several NFL stadiums will conduct balloting on more than one day. The in-stadium schedule:
1998 PRO BOWL IN-STADIUM BALLOTING
| THURSDAY, OCTOBER 16 | |
| San Diego at Kansas City | |
| SUNDAY, OCTOBER 19 | |
| Miami at Baltimore | Denver at Oakland |
| Carolina at New Orleans | Arizona at Philadelphia |
| SUNDAY, OCTOBER 26 | |
| Tennessee at Arizona | Oakland at Seattle |
| Dallas at Philadelphia | Minnesota at Tampa Bay |
| Indianapolis at San Diego | |
| SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 2 | |
| Philadelphia at Arizona | San Diego at Cincinnati |
| Oakland at Carolina | Seattle at Denver |
| Washington at Chicago | New England at Minnesota |
| MONDAY, NOVEMBER 3 | |
| Pittsburgh at Kansas City | |
| SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 9 | |
| New England at Buffalo | New York Jets at Miami |
| Arizona at Dallas | New Orleans at Oakland |
| St. Louis at Green Bay | Baltimore at Pittsburgh |
| Cincinnati at Indianapolis | Seattle at San Diego |
| Kansas City at Jacksonville | Detroit at Washington |
| MONDAY, NOVEMBER 10 | |
| San Francisco at Philadelphia | |
| SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 16 | |
| Minnesota at Detroit | Cincinnati at Pittsburgh |
| Denver at Kansas City | Oakland at San Diego |
| Arizona at New York Giants | Carolina at San Francisco |
| SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 23 | |
| New Orleans at Atlanta | Carolina at St. Louis |
| Miami at New England | San Diego at San Francisco |
| Minnesota at New York Jets | Kansas City at Seattle |
| Buffalo at Tennessee |
The 1998 Pro Bowl teams will be announced on December 11 and featured on ESPN’s one-hour "Pro Bowl Selection Show" at 7:30 PM ET. The show will feature interviews with just-chosen Pro Bowl players.
In addition to in-stadium balloting and voting through America Online’s Team NFL area (keyword: NFL), fans can vote on ballots in Topps Stadium Club Series II football cards, and in balloting sponsored by Reebok at 70 "Just For Feet" retail superstores nationwide that will run from mid-October through November. Ballots also will be distributed at the NFL Experience at Disney’s Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando, Florida and at the NFL Experience on Tour in conjunction with the NFL’s Air-It-Out traveling flag football festival in 13 cities. Fan voters are automatically entered in a Pro Bowl Sweepstakes that awards a trip for two to the game.