HONOLULU (AP) -- When Ray Lewis steps off the plane from his cross-country flight and is greeted with a lei and an aloha, it finally hits him that he's been voted back on the island.
Sunday's Pro Bowl marks the return to Hawaii - where it had been since 1980 - after a spending a year in Miami in an experiment by the NFL to combine the All-Star game activities with the Super Bowl.
Hawaii is paying $4 million per game to hold the Pro Bowl this year and in 2012 as the state deals with an $844 million projected deficit over the next 2½ years.
The players, however, clearly want the game to stay in the islands.
Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning says "there's no better place to have it."
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