MIAMI // Matt Schaub of the Houston Texans threw two touchdown passes and was named Most Valuable Player after leading the AFC to a 41-34 win over the NFC in the annual Pro Bowl game on Sunday. "It's a game you watch growing up as a kid and wonder if you could ever be in," Schaub said. "To be a part of it is incredible." More than 70,000 turned out at Dolphin Stadium but many drifted away during the second half of what was a light-contact, high-scoring friendly encounter between the league's two conferences featuring 987 total yards gained.
"It's different. It was like playing seven on seven," the NFC linebacker Brian Orakpo said. "Everybody came out here trying not to get hurt and give the fans a good show." The game, usually played in Hawaii the week after the Super Bowl, was switched to South Florida the week before the NFL's biggest event. "It's beautiful. It's paradise," Steve Smith, the NFC receiver, said. The score was level 14-14 at the break, with Green Bay quarterback Aaron Rodgers throwing two touchdowns for the NFC.
Diluted by the absence of many big-name players, the game nonetheless came alive in the third quarter when the NFC grabbed the lead. Donovan McNabb, the Philadelphia Eagles quarterback, passed to his teammate, wide receiver DeSean Jackson, who weaved past opponents to run home a 58-yard touchdown. That prompted two touchdowns and a field goal from the AFC but their victory was not secured until the fourth quarter when Tennessee's Chris Johnson ran home from two yards.
The game will return to Honolulu in 2011 and 2012, but the league has not decided whether to hold those games before or after the Super Bowl. * Reuters
