For the first time since August, there is no professional football being played this Sunday. The week off prior to the Super Bowl is one of the more awkward times in the sports calendar. It's incredibly boring, but the NFL typically tries to find some filler, whether it be Super Bowl media day, giving out hard-earned awards, or even the Pro Bowl.
While it's a stretch to even count whatever happens at the Pro Bowl as real football, it typically does include players in pads competing against one another. Heck, even if it's flag football, or some odd version of the Pro Bowl Games, there is a prize on the line. It's something to hold us over until next Sunday, when Super Bowl LX between the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots takes centerstage.
Are there NFL games today, Feb. 1? Not so fast
The NFL doesn't have to care about your average fan, like myself, who doesn't know what to do with himself on his first Sunday without football in eight months. I'll do my best to explain why. The NFL is so powerful (and frankly addicting) that league owners and executives believe they can survive a Sunday without football for the greater good.
Super Bowl Opening Night is Monday, along with a litany of other Super Bowl-related events set to kick off during the week. However, what is missing from the week prior to the Super Bowl is the Pro Bowl. As much flack as this contest between the best the NFL has to offer gets – and much of it is well-deserved – Sunday will be the first true test as to whether or not it's necessary. I'm very serious.
If NFL fans are content not watching football for one Sunday instead of tuning in for what amounts to watching paint dry with a football in hand, then we've lost the Pro Bowl for good – as well as the Sunday before the Super Bowl.
Pro Bowl schedule change is to blame for no football the Sunday before Super Bowl LX
Rather than a full-fledged game of NFL stars risking injury – even at 50 percent effort, mind you – the league installed a 7-on-7 flag football tournament in its place. Given Goodell and the NFL's recent push for player safety and flag football's popularity among younger generations of fans, this all adds up to a much better version of an All-Star Game the league has struggled to get right since its inception.
The Pro Bowl Games were not made for older generations of football fans, but rather ones who are embracing player safety and understand that an All-Star Game is, if nothing else, an exhibition. However, the NFL did take a major chance in moving the Pro Bowl Games to Tuesday, right in the middle of Super Bowl week. If they thought the audience was weak in 2025, the viewership on Tuesday night – right smack in the middle of NBA and NHL regular-season action – could offer a rude awakening.
- Date: Tuesday, Feb. 3
- Time: 8:00pm ET
- Where: Moscone Center in San Francisco, CA
- How to watch: ESPN
- How to stream: Fubo or Disney+
Why did the NFL change its Pro Bowl Games schedule?
The NFL changed its Pro Bowl schedule to benefit the players, as Roger Goodell explained earlier in 2025.
"We've spent a lot of time evolving our Pro Bowl, talking about how to make our Pro Bowl more attractive, both for our players participating but also our fans," Goodell said. "We spent a great deal of time talking about the objectives, and the objectives really are to celebrate and honor our incredible players, and second is to use our game as a global platform."
The Moscone Center holds just over 4,000 people, so it will make for a more intimade and in-demand event. Over the last half-decade, the NFL has realized that the Pro Bowl in its past form didn't work. While the alterations made since then have flaws, at least the league is trying.
But not offering a product for fans the Sunday before the Super Bowl comes with some serious risks.