NFL Replaces Pro Bowl With New Event

The NFL has eliminated the traditional Pro Bowl game and replaced it with a new event. On Monday, the league announced it will launch “The Pro Bowl Games” in Las Vegas in 2023. The week-long event will be a celebration of player skills featuring a new format that spotlights flag football. The Pro Bowl players will end the week with a flag football game at Allegiant Stadium and will air on ESPN and ABC on Sunday, Feb. 5, 2023. 

“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.” The NFL will work with different partners to program “The Pro Bowl Games.” Peyton Manning and Omaha Productions will help shape the program throughout the week. He will also be part of the coaching staff for the flag football game. 

“You tap into all the stuff that feels great about Pro Bowl week, the skills, the helmets off, the engagement and then culminate that, keeping the AFC-NFC construct, in something that’s really important, which is flag football and that opportunity to have the best athletes in the NFL out there playing this game that is so much about the future of our sport,” O’Reilly said who is the league’s executive vice president, club business and league events. “It’s been an evolution, but coming out of Las Vegas last year, we really focused on how do we reinvent and celebrate our all-stars even better.” 

Fan voting will help shape the AFC and NFC Pro Bowl rosters. The Pro Bowl debuted in January 1951 in Los Angeles and was there for 21 seasons. The game moved to different cities from 1972 to 1980 before Hawaii hosted it from 1980 to 2009. It has since been played in various venues across the country.