The NFL Pro Bowl will no longer be a tackle football game. The league is replacing the postseason all-star showcase with a week-long array of skills competitions and other events culminating in a flag football game between the AFC and NFC. ABC and ESPN will televise the contest.
The NFL is dubbing the branded week “The Pro Bowl Games.” The first iteration is Feb. 5, 2023, in Las Vegas, which hosted the 2022 game in what appears to have been the last tackle Pro Bowl.
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Peyton Manning’s Omaha Productions, his content studio that produces among other shows the Manningcast on Monday Night Football, will in part manage programming for the week. He will also be on the coaching staff for the AFC-NFC flag football game at Allegiant Stadium, which will conclude the week of events.
In its press release, the league described a week of challenges where players engage in football and non-football skills competitions. What those contests are is not yet determined, though reviving the old Quarterback Challenge, discontinued since 2008, is a possibility.
“We’ve received invaluable feedback from players, teams and fans about reimagining the Pro Bowl, and as a result, we’re thrilled to use The Pro Bowl Games as a platform to spotlight flag football as an integral part of the sport’s future while also introducing fun, new forms of competition and entertainment that will bring our players, their families and fans closer than ever before,” said Peter O’Reilly, NFL executive vice president, club business and league events.
The NFL has long struggled with the weak play in the Pro Bowl, the only all-star competition among the big four sports leagues staged outside the regular season. The game still has received decent TV ratings, though the 2022 competition on ESPN and ABC had a combined 6.69 million viewers, the lowest since 2006, according to SportsBusiness Daily.
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has made no secret of his disdain for the low quality of play in the game. But the players have long supported the Pro Bowl in part because it is largely a free vacation for them and their families, not to mention a reward for a high-caliber season.
The “game itself, doesn’t work,” Goodell told reporters in May after an owners’ meeting, during which reports first emerged of the planned changes, and that “we needed to find a different way to celebrate our players.”
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Two themes are evident in the shift. One is the emphasis on flag football, which the league is heavily promoting as a less physical way for children to try football amidst endemic concerns about the safety of the tackle game.
In addition to the AFC-NFC flag game, the week will include the NFL Flag Championships, which will feature the top girls’ and boys’ youth flag teams from across the country and around the world.
The second theme is the NFL’s long-standing effort to brand weeks on the calendar to continually feed fans football content and generate new sources of revenue. So-called tent-pole events include the draft, schedule release, scouting combine, and most recently, training camp.
To that end, Verizon is sponsoring the first Pro Bowl Games.
Fan voting for what is now a flag football game will start later in the season. The East-West Shrine Bowl, a senior collegiate showcase football game, will also be played in Las Vegas during the week.
(Photo of Kyle Pitts and Justin Jefferson celebrating a touchdown at the 2022 Pro Bowl: Ethan Miller / Getty Images)