NFL Ends 75-Year Pro Bowl Game, Replacing It With 88-Player Honors
Updated
Updated · CNN · Aug 26
NFL Ends 75-Year Pro Bowl Game, Replacing It With 88-Player Honors
3 articles · Updated · CNN · Aug 26
Summary
The NFL will stop staging the Pro Bowl game after this season and instead honor 88 selected players in Los Angeles alongside several flag football events.
League executives said players no longer want competitive post-playoff action, arguing the exhibition could not match recent playoff physicality and no longer represented the sport well.
The move ends a tradition that ran in some form almost every year since 1951, with only the 2021 pandemic cancellation interrupting it.
The Pro Bowl had already been losing appeal, prompting venue changes from Honolulu and a 2023 switch from tackle football to flag football before the NFL abandoned the game entirely.