This season, the NFL held the Pro Bowl Games in central Florida, with many of the events taking place in Orlando Florida. This year’s Pro Bowl Games marked the third year of the event, a departure from the traditional Pro Bowl.
The Games, which were held on January 30 and February 2, consisted of various skills competitions and culminated in a 7-on-7 flag football game. Former NFL players Peyton and Eli Manning coached the flag football game, which Eli’s team won 76-63.
The Pro Bowl games have been controversial since their inception, as many people miss the traditional Pro Bowl, in which the best players from the AFC and NFC would put on pads and scrimmage each other in a football exhibition, in what was the NFL’s equivalent of an All-Star game.
However, players took the event less seriously in the Pro Bowl’s last years to avoid injuries in what is ultimately a meaningless game, leading to the Pro Bowl Games.
Unfortunately, the Pro Bowl games have led to record numbers of opt-outs from the sport’s stars, and fan interest appears to be declining as the novelty of the first Pro Bowl Games has worn off.
Many are wondering if the NFL is ever going to switch back to the previous format to celebrate its best players across the league.
Unfortunately, per NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, in one of league commissioner Roger Goodell’s final mentions of the old format, he said: “The (Pro Bowl) game doesn’t work. We need to find another way to celebrate the players.”
With no mention of going back to the old format since the switch and no indication that players would take the game seriously if the Pro Bowl were to resume, all signs point to the event being a relic of the past, with the NFL ready to bury it in the past forever.
About Qwame Skinner
Qwame Skinner has loved both writing and sports his entire life. In addition to his sports coverage at Comeback Media, Qwame writes novels, and his debut; The First Casualty, an adult fantasy, is out now.