Report: NFL Considering Changes to Pro Bowl, Including Not Playing Game

The NFL is considering changes to the Pro Bowl, including eliminating the game itself, in order to rekindle interest in the league’s annual all-star game.

“The game doesn’t work. We need to find another way to celebrate the players,” NFL commissioner Goodell said to ESPN on Tuesday.

The game has seen its interest decline in recent years. Since 2010, when the game was moved to the week before the Super Bowl, players on teams participating in the championship are ineligible to play. The number of players skipping the game altogether in recent years has increased, as well.

Players are paid for their participation, with winners getting $74,000 and losers getting $37,000 in 2020. The game was not played in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The game still draws television viewers, with nearly 7 million people watching this February’s game. Najee Harris, Cam Heyward, Diontae Johnson and T.J. Watt represented the Steelers in that game, which was played at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. The game was played in Orlando in from 2016-20, after moving from its traditional home of Honolulu, Hawaii. 

Super Bowl LVIII will be played in Las Vegas, so it seems unlikely that the league will want major events at the stadium on back-to-back weekends this coming year.

The game has also been played in Phoenix, Miami, Los Angeles, Tampa, Seattle, New Orleans, Kansas City and Dallas since it stared in 1950.