SAN FRANCISCO _ Steve Young, who made history throwing six touchdowns in a Super Bowl for the hometown 49ers, is presiding over history again here this week as the AFC Pro Bowl coach for Bengals quarterbacks Joe Burrow and Joe Flacco.

With Burrow announced to his third Pro Bowl Sunday, it's believed to be the first time since the early 1950s two quarterbacks on the same team are in the NFL all-star game that is now a flag football contest set to unfurl Tuesday (8 p.m.-ESPN, NFL+) on the floor of the Moscone Center.

The announcement also caps Burrow's comeback year from early-season toe surgery to 15 touchdown passes in the last six games.

"He's playing? Tell him to get in here, man. We've got to get set up," Young said after the AFC's first of two practices on Sunday morning.

"Hey, it's history. I told the guys this morning that flag football is the big game that's growing more than any sport in America or the world. These guys playing it seriously, both Joes, will do a lot for the kids to think about flag."

Burrow and Flacco, late adds to an AFC roster thinned by injured quarterbacks, weren't at Sunday's practice. But their favorite targets, Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins, were in place.

"Reminds me of "Space Jam," a little bit. Those two great receivers, I've got nothing but respect for them," said Broncos cornerback Patrick Surtain II, last year's NFL Defensive Player of the Year who is also intrigued by the two Joes. "That's pretty cool. The AFC North is doing something big."

Chase missed the team picture but got to practice just as it got going after a 4 a.m. wake-up call for a flight from New Orleans and breezed through the AFC huddle commandeered by Browns rookie Shedeur Sanders to say hello to all. Meanwhile, Higgins savored his first Pro Bowl with plans of showing his family the streets of San Francisco after practice.

Chase and Higgins appeared to be the two reasons Burrow left his offseason for his second consecutive Pro Bowl after tossing an NFL-leading 43 touchdown passes in 2024.

"He's got his guys out here," Higgins said. "The Bengals on top. We're going to make history."

Chase emerged from the huddle stunned to hear Burrow was on his way.

"Wow. Wow," Chase said. "That would be the reason why he should come. I just think it's just hilarious to hear."

Young, a deadly lefthander who was also one of the greatest runners ever out of the pocket, retired in the final year of the last century as the game's most accurate passer. Burrow comes into this Pro Bowl as the NFL's reigning all-time completion percentage leader.

"He's that guy," Young said. "I saw Tee and I see Ja'Marr and if everyone's healthy … there's no reason why the Bengals shouldn't be competing for a championship every year.

"His guile, I'll call it. He has elite guile. Street smarts. Most people's heart rate goes up when the pressure goes up. But it seems like Joe's goes down. He's so present and aware. I'm looking forward to seeing him."

Flacco Flinging

Sanders, who began the season as the No. 3 in Cleveland, appeared delighted that Flacco got the call. It's also thought to be the first time since the early '50s, and the Rams' tandem of Norm Van Brocklin and Bob Waterfield that two quarterbacks who began the season on the same team made the Pro Bowl.

"I'm excited to see Flacco when I see him today," Sanders said. "He'll tell you about what he owes me. Ask Flacco, do you owe Shedeur anything?'"

It probably involves something with that Oct. 7 trade that plucked Flacco from the Browns' bench into the middle of the AFC North race. Whatever, Sanders said Flacco taught him plenty.

"It's not in Flacco's character not to help," Sanders said. "He has to help. He's the grandpa of football for us."

Flacco, who turned 41 the week after the season, is probably the most popular player in this game. It's his first Pro Bowl appearance in an 18-year career that includes a Super Bowl MVP and a Comeback Player of the Year.

"I love Flacco being here. He's been doing it for a long time and at a high level," Higgins said. "When I heard it was his first one, I was shocked myself."

Chase, playing in his fourth straight Pro Bowl (he missed his first at the Super Bowl), has noticed the difference as players have dropped out. But he's glad Flacco is coming.

"That's the best decision right there ever," Chase said. "This is the (most different) Pro Bowl. A lot of alternates are playing. The game is changing."

But has it really? Maybe things have just finally evened out for Flacco. It was 11 years ago when Flacco bowed out of a Pro Bowl, and, ironically, gave one to Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton.

Flacco turned down his only Pro Bowl invitation after the 2014 season because his wife was due with their third child, and Dalton made it as the seventh alternate.

Tee Time

Higgins, a second alternate, could care less how he got here as he looked down at his AFC No. 5 jersey topped off by an AFC ballcap.

"I grew up watching it when it was in Hawaii," Higgins said. "It says something about all of the work I've put in, and it's a blessing to be in the Pro Bowl. Wearing the AFC."

Puka Salutes Ja'Marr

Puka Nacua may be coming off a season in which he led the NFL in catches, but he pulled no punches when asked to name the best receiver in the league and immediately settled on Chase with a nod to the Vikings' Justin Jefferson.

"There is nobody like him. There's 'Jet,' but I'm a fan of No. 1," Nacua said of Chase. "There's nobody that moves like him. I think his movement pattern, I believe, is the best. Everything about it. The fluidness, the explosiveness, his strength.

"For somebody who loves run after-the catch, he does it better than anybody. He always finds a way. He's so creative, and the way he moves it's always so fluid and smooth."

Slants and Screens

Jerry Rice, Young's 49ers teammate, fellow Pro Football Hall-of-Famer, and the game's all-time leading receiver, is coaching the NFC. He's been watching Chase. And he says he's one of the best now not just because of his play.

"I met him this morning, and just watching his demeanor, he wants to win," Rice said. "He can do it all. He can run every route. He can make those difficult catches. He's a little bit thicker than me. In today's football, because of the run-pass option, you need to be a little bit bigger, a little more muscular." …

Rice is one of the biggest Bengals' villains ever as the MVP of Super Bowl XXIII. But the moment that gets him sprinting for a few yards Sunday at age 63 comes from the season before in a 1987 Riverfront Stadium game. The one where quarterback Joe Montana used the last six seconds to fire a 25-yard winning touchdown pass to Rice to beat the Bengals by one.

Rice suddenly imitated his head coach Bill Walsh, the former Paul Brown assistant.

"Joe threw me the ball and I looked over and Bill was skipping off the field," Rice said. "I never saw him show emotion like that." …