The Pro Bowl is no more.
The NFL’s annual exhibition between the NFC and AFC has been eliminated after debuting in 1951, and will be replaced with “The Pro Bowl Games”, the league announced Monday.
What are “The Pro Bowl Games” you ask? Here’s what the NFL said in a press release:
Taking place in Las Vegas in 2023, The Pro Bowl Games presented by Verizon will be a week-long celebration of player skills featuring an exciting new format that spotlights Flag football. The multi-day AFC vs NFC competition will culminate in an action-packed flag game featuring Pro Bowl players at Allegiant Stadium, and will air on ESPN and ABC on Sunday, Feb. 5, 2023.
Throughout the week, The Pro Bowl Games will also integrate new challenges where players showcase their football and non-football skills in unique competitions. The revamped programming allows the top stars show off their skills and celebrate their accomplishments in a fun, memorable way, surrounded by their families and fans.
The league is partnering with Payton Manning and his Omaha Productions company to help “shape programming and promote the event’s content throughout the week.”
For over a decade, the Pro Bowl has been hardly competitive due to players understandably not wanting to get injured in the exhibition. In recent years, the league has beefed up the amount of fun televised events involving players throughout the week, much of which has been broadcast on the league’s network.
“The Pro Bowl is something that we’ve been looking at for a while, really continuing to evolve,” NFL executive Peter O’Reilly told The Associated Press. “Coming out of last year’s game, we really made the decision based on a lot of internal conversations, getting feedback from GMs and coaches, getting a lot of feedback from players. We think there’s a real opportunity to do something wholly different here and move away from the traditional tackle football game. We decided the goal is to celebrate 88 of the biggest stars in the NFL in a really positive, fun, yet competitive way.
“The feedback very directly from guys who had been in the Pro Bowl recently was to keep the construct of the week, make sure you’re having that multiday element. It was overwhelmingly positive both from players as well as from clubs.”