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 The
1978 Pro Bowl was played on
a Monday night as a
presentation of Monday Night
Football on ABC in front of a
crowd of 50,716 fans at
Tampa Stadium (video). The coaches
were Bud Grant of the
Vikings for the NFC and John
Madden of the Raiders for
the AFC.
The scoring began with 2:46
left the first quarter when
Bob Griese of Miami hit New
England’s Russ Francis with
a 43 yard pass, setting up
21 yard field goal by Toni
Linhart of Baltimore. With
six minutes remaining in the
first half, Ken Stabler of
the Raiders engineered an
AFC drive, hitting Oakland
teammates Dave Casper for 16
yards and Cliff Branch for
17 and, finally, Branch
again for 10 and a
touchdown. With :03 to go in
the half, Linhart kicked a
39 yard field goal to make
it 13-0.
In the third period, Pat
Haden of the Rams connected
with St. Louis’ Terry
Metcalf for a 4 yard
touchdown to get the NFC
back into the game. In the
fourth period, Jim Hart of
the Cardinals began to drive
the NFC toward the go ahead
score. Starting from his own
37 yard line, he hit Dallas’
Billy Joe DuPree for nine
yards and Chicago’s Walter
Payton carried for 12. Then,
Hart hit Payton on a swing
pass for 11 yards and, three
plays later, DuPree again
for 9 down to the AFC 18.
Hart hit Drew Pearson of the
Cowboys for 5 and DuPree
again for another five.
Walter Payton then carried
the ball six yards to the
AFC one yard line. Then,
Payton slashed through the
left side of the line to
give the NFC their first
lead with 7:37 remaining. Stabler had one more chance
and he went to work. He hit
Branch for 20 yards and
Casper for 9 and 17, putting
the AFC into field goal
range for Linhart. But,
facing a 2nd and 9 with the
ball on the NFC 26, San
Francisco’s Cleveland Elam
shot through the line to
sack Stabler for a 9 yard
loss. The sack forced
Linhart to kick from 52
yards out. The kick was well
short with 2:58 remaining
and the game ended with the
score, NFC 14-AFC 13.
Payton earned the honors as
MVP. He had 77 yards on 13
carries. Stabler, Griese and
the AFC coaches were irate
that Elam was allowed to get
away with a blitz, which is
illegal in the Pro Bowl.
According to Stabler, “They
brought the linebackers and
that’s not legal.” Blitzing
is illegal except on third
down and short yardage
situations by outside
linebackers. The officials
did not make a call on
Elam’s play and the NFC’s
opinion was summed up by
Dallas defensive end Harvey
Martin who said, “The AFC’s
crying cause they lost…the
game’s over with…I didn’t
see no blitz.”
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