Ryans, Samuels, Jones among Pro Bowl selections

NEW YORK | Pro Bowl voters honored the memory of Sean Taylor.

They also used a lot of votes on Dallas Cowboys and none on the NFC South, which didn’t get a player into the league’s all-star game.

Taylor, who died Nov. 27 after being shot during a burglary at his home in Florida, was voted the starting free safety on the NFC team. He was having an outstanding season and was one of the leading vote-getters among fans at the time of his death.

“It is well-deserved,” Redskins center Casey Rabach said. “If he would have been able to finish the season, he would have been in there. It just shows the respect everybody around the league had for him and what a great player he was.”

Taylor is the only player known to have made an all-star team posthumously in any sport other than goaltender Pelle Lindbergh was voted to the NHL All-Star game in February 1986. He had been killed in an auto accident in November 1985 after playing eight games for the Philadelphia Flyers, for whom he had won the Vezina Trophy as the league’s best goalie the previous season.

The University of Alabama was represented throughout the Pro Bowl list, as second-year Texans inside linebacker DeMeco Ryans earned a starting spot for the AFC. Washington’s Chris Samuels is a reserve offensive tackle for the NFC. Aliceville High School graduate Walter Jones is a starting offensive tackle for the NFC.

Both conferences were dominated by players from the teams at the top of the standings, none more than Dallas, which had 11 voted to the team by fans, players and coaches for the game to be played in Honolulu on Feb. 10. Unbeaten New England had eight, including Tom Brady and Randy Moss, but also linebacker Mike Vrabel, who made it to the game for the first time in 11 NFL seasons.

Still, Jacksonville was ignored although the Jaguars are 10-4 and on the verge of clinching a playoff spot in the AFC. So were all four teams in the NFC South, plus Detroit and the Jets.

Dallas’ contingent included the obvious: quarterback Tony Romo and wide receiver Terrell Owens. And with the Cowboys at 12-2, the fans came out for more of their favorites on “America’s Team.”

One of the Cowboys, running back Marion Barber, is not a starter for Dallas, although he leads the team with 871 yards rushing. That’s 315 more than starter Julius Jones, but is just seventh in the NFC, although Barber does have 11 touchdowns.

Green Bay, tied with Dallas at the top of the NFC, had four players on the team, including Brett Favre, who will start at quarterback. It is the ninth Pro Bowl for the 38-year-old Favre, his first since 2003.

San Diego, like New England, had eight players chosen. Minnesota was second in the NFC with seven, including rookie Adrian Peterson, who leads the conference in rushing.

Jared Allen of Kansas City, suspended for the first two games of the season after multiple drunken driving convictions, will be a starting defensive end for the AFC.