Tomorrow night is the 2012 Pro Bowl in Honolulu, Hawaii. We can't all be there having fun in the sun with the 2011 NFL All-Stars, but I have figured out a way for us to have some fun with it right here on CSC.
I mined the internets (specifically, the Saints official team site, wikipedia, and pro-football-reference.com) to create a Saints pro bowl history document. From that document of information, I created a 10-question Saints Pro Bowl Quiz to test our knowledge of New Orleans Saints Pro Bowl history.
** Warning: If you are going to play, please don't scroll down in the comments or you'll see what those before you have submitted for answers - IDEA: jot down your answers on a piece of paper or in a Word doc before you go to post them/cut and paste into a comment. **
Make the jump for the guidelines and the questions...
The Guidelines
First, I'd rather not get into semantics-based debate over Pro Bowl selections vs. named injury replacements vs. named to the team, but didn't actually play in the game vs. other minutiae, etc. What I'm going by is the Saints wikipedia page, which lists all the Saints players ever named to the Pro Bowl by position (which includes the 2011 season). I cross-referenced these names with pro-football-reference.com's individual player pages, checking the career stats/games played grids, in which there is an asterix next to each year in which a player made the Pro Bowl.
Second, for the sake of this quiz, I am invoking the HansDat Honor System, and asking that you do not use any research tools to aid you in answering these questions. Let's just see what we know from memory, and the tops of our heads and/or our much-learned posteriors (this last one refers to wild guesses pulled out of one's butt).
Third, whenever I have not used the term "following which season" in referring to a player's Pro Bowl years, I mean the year of the regular season in which the Pro Bowl berth was "earned" for the indicator, even though the game itself was usually played in the January or February of the year after the regular season. (Trivia for the nerds: the NFL All-Star Game following the 1940 season was played in December of 1940.)
Fourth, when referring to specific position groups, they are as follows: QBs, RBs (including FBs), WRs, TEs, Centers, Guards, Tackles, DEs, DTs, LBs, Safeties, CBs, Special Teamers, Kick Returners.
Fifth, I will attempt to score all those who respond with answers posted prior to noon EST on Sunday, January 29, in a loose, 1-point per question format - no partial credit, no bonus points. The official answers (as per the sources I listed above) will be posted in a 3:00ish pm EST CSC story - depending on how my Sunday plays out - along with the scores for each player who answered.
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The Questions
1) Who was the first Saints player selected for the Pro Bowl as a Saint?
2) How many Saints players have been named to the Pro Bowl (all-time) as Saints?
3) Following which season did the Saints have the most players selected to the Pro Bowl as Saints?
4) What notable Pro Bowl record/distinction was earned by the Saints following the 1992 season?
5) Which position has seen the most Saints Pro Bowl selections all-time as Saints?
6) Which Saint holds the record for most career Pro Bowl honors as a Saint?
7) Which Saint holds the record for most consecutive Pro Bowl selections as a Saint?
8) Which Saint player was named MVP of the Pro Bowl as a Saint?
9) Following which season did the Saints coaching staff coach the NFC squad in the Pro Bowl?
10) Following which season did New Orleans host the Pro Bowl, and at what stadium was the game played?
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Good luck to one and all, and remember HansDat's Honor System - NO PEEKING, PLEASE!