The all star pro bowl matches held each year by NFL at the end of its season is indeed a spectacular event never to be missed. With some of the prominent names in football being a part of it, this global event is indeed something to look forward to.

Players coming from various NFL teams constitute the National Football Conference or NFC team and if they were to wear their original uniforms they would be creating lot of confusion. The only thing they can carry representing their home team is the helmet. NFC players wear solid blue jerseys and pants, AFC players wear solid red jerseys and pants and the away team players wear white jerseys with red or blue accents. The design of the uniforms is changed once in two years with rotation of color and white jerseys on design change. The tradition of wearing team specific helmets first started in 1979. Earlier to that between 1950s and 60s the teams had a different combination. The eastern team was represented by scarlet jerseys with numerals in white, crescent shoulder straps in white, red striped white pants, plain red helmet and red socks. The western team had white jerseys with numerals in royal blue and triple striped sleeves, blue striped white pants, plain blue helmet and socks.

Each year to end the National Football League (NFL) season, Pro Bowl matches are played. Top players from the National Football Conference (NFC) play against the American Football Conference (AFC). This all star game is extremely popular ever since it first began on the 15th of January 1939 and is held in Hawaii. While Hawaii is the most preferred venue for the Pro Bowl matches, it has also been organized in Los Angeles in the first two that it began and in Miami in 2010. For the year 2011, Pro Bowl games were held in Honolulu, Hawaii. The games are held in the month of January.

Also called as the Pro All-Star Game, the players are selected for the matches based on voting. The voting is done on the official website of NFL and everybody from the coaches to the fans and even the players themselves get to vote. It is indeed a mark of honor for the football players to be a pro bowler and the players accepted for the Pro Bowl are extremely elite. When compared to the regular NFL games, the Pro Bowl has different rules, like offense cannot have three receivers on one side, no blitzing and restrictions on press coverage etc.

For a football player, being a member of the National Football League (NFL) team has many benefits. But they are also bounded by the rules of the league that grants specific rights to the players and this is done based of the years of experience the player has. Broadly speaking these are classified into three categories.

Players who have not yet started their season or only played for the first year do not have the rights to negotiate any deals with other teams. They can however renegotiate with the team they are playing with or even refuse to play. The next category is players who have played in at least 3 seasons of NFL games; they fall under the restricted free agents rules and have limited rights such as negotiating with other teams. Players, who have played successfully in more than 4 seasons, fall into the third unrestricted free agents category. Under this category they have full and unlimited rights of negotiating terms with a team of their preference.

The NFL association restricts the salary to the players, however contracts and subcontracts itself reaches astounding figures to the extent that many NFL players figure amongst the highest paid sportsman in the world.

In 2011, Kobe Bryant has an estimated net worth of $140 million. His annual salary for the Lakers is now almost at $25 million. He was initially drafted by the Hornets and then soon signed a three year contract with the Lakers. In his third year with the Lakers, he signed a $70 million contract for another six years.

Besides his salary that he gets from playing basketball for the LA Lakers, he also has endorsement deals with many companies. In 2003, when he was charged with sexual assault, many companies have suspended their contracts with Kobe. The case had hurt Kobe’s popularity, his marriage and his finances.

Granted, he may not turn dirt poor with many companies suspending their deals but it is indeed an all-time low for a famous basketball superstar like Kobe. When the case was closed and Kobe was not found guilty of sexual assault he also gained back many of his endorsement deals soon after.

His estimated net worth in 2011 is $140 million which makes him one of the richest athletes in the United States. Many endorsement companies, major and minor, can definitely contribute to Kobe’s net worth. He is indeed talented on the basketball court which makes him very bankable.