The NFL has had more than 100 Pro Bowlers in recent years because of players who were either too injured or disinterested in participating. Browns quarterback Shedeur Sanders, who started only seven games and threw more interceptions than touchdowns, was a Pro Bowl replacement last season.
The league announced Wednesday that it is doing away with the game. Instead, the NFL will name 88 Pro Bowlers it will honor in Los Angeles before the Super Bowl in February.
Commissioner Roger Goodell explained the reasoning after NFL owners wrapped up their meeting in Atlanta.
“I think this is something that we talked to our players about, the Pro Bowl players in particular,” Goodell said, via Mark Maske of Front Office Sports. “We had conference calls the last couple years: What’s working? What’s not? What would you like to see? And the number one thing that came out—and there were a lot of wonderful comments by the players—one is: ‘We want to be honored and celebrated as a Pro Bowl player.’ . . . It just opened my eyes. I never really thought about it in the context of that. It’s not honoring the replacement players. It’s honoring the guys who are selected by the fans, by the players, by the coaches.
“And so that was really the core of it, is: How do we do this in the right way? And our players, you know, they did what they normally do. They had great recommendations on how to do that. And second, a willingness to lead that the all-star format doesn’t really work for our game. . . . It’s something that we felt strongly about. And I think our players, they deserve to be celebrated when they get the Pro Bowl honor.”
Since 1951, the NFL has held an exhibition of the league’s all-star players in some form every year except 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The league switched from a Pro Bowl Game to the Pro Bowl Games — a non-contact flag football game — in 2023. It didn’t help with participants’ interest or fans’ interest.
“I think we’ve been focused on the game,” Goodell said. “You’ve heard me say it for many years about the quality of the game in the Pro Bowl. I don’t think it’s up to NFL standards. And that’s why we changed to the flag game several years ago. So I’m not sure the last time you want to say we played a game in a football sense.”
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