The NFL Pro Bowl as every football fan used to know it has changed so much, it's just a shell of its former self. There hasn't been an actual football game played since 2022 and the bastardization the league came up with — the Pro Bowl Games — never quite hit with audiences.
Now, it appears the Pro Bowl as a concept is going to entirely fade into obscurity as a relic of a bygone era.
Jon Lewis of Sports Media Watch reported Tuesday that the NFL currently does not have anything related to the Pro Bowl on its calendar and has nothing to announce regarding the event. The Pro Bowl Games, which include team challenges and a flag football game, have typically been scheduled for the Sunday between the conference championship games and the Super Bowl.
NFL looks poised to give up on failed Pro Bowl Games experiment
ABC & ESPN own the rights to the Pro Bowl event and as of now, they have a college basketball double-header, an NBA game in the typical time slot it has previously occupied. If it were to be moved to prime time, then ABC would have to preempt part of it's lineup (which is rare) because ESPN has an NHL Stadium Series game scheduled.
This past season, the audience for the Pro Bowl flag football game dropped 18 percent compared to the previous year. Audiences clearly aren't buying what the NFL has been trying to sell.
Granted, the league went away from the normal football game to avoid injuries but still provide an All-Star Game product for fans. It's not been working so perhaps it'll abandon it altogether and come up with something else.
Some have suggested just handing out Pro Bowl selections to deserving players but then what to do with the void left by no game or competition? Perhaps the league is willing to take the brunt of criticisms for taking some sort of game away for a year just to test if audiences still want something before the Super Bowl. We'll find out later this season, I guess.