The NFL will replace the Pro Bowl with weekly skills competitions and a flag football game, The Associated Press has learned.
The new event replaces the full contact display that started in 1951. It is called “The Pro Bowl Games” and AFC and NFC players will show off their football and non-football skills in several days of challenges. The 2023 games will be held in Las Vegas, with the flag football game at Allegiant Stadium on February 5.
Peyton Manning and an Omaha production company will help shape programming and promote the show’s content throughout the week. Manning, a 14-time Pro Bowl selection in his Hall of Fame career, will provide his own perspective and will also be part of the coaching staff for the flag game.
“The Pro Bowl is something we’ve been looking at for a while, it’s really going to continue to evolve,” NFL executive Peter O’Reilly told The Associated Press. We think there’s a real opportunity here to do something completely different and move. We’ve moved away from the traditional tackle football game. We decided the goal was to celebrate the 88 greatest stars in the NFL in a truly positive, fun, yet competitive way.
“The feedback from the guys who were in the Pro Bowl recently was to keep building the week and make sure you have that multi-day element. It’s been very positive from both the players and the clubs.”
The Pro Bowl began in Los Angeles in January 1951 and remained there for 21 seasons before the game moved to different cities from 1972 to 1980. Hawaii hosted from 1980 to 2009. Phoenix, Orlando and Las Vegas.
The quality of play in the Pro Bowl has often been criticized. When players worry about injury, they treat it more like an exhibition than a competition. A game of flag football adds to the competition by avoiding injuries caused by tackling, blocking and kicking.
The NFL has a big interest in flag football. The league is partnering with the International Federation of American Soccer to bring flag football to the World Games in July with an eye on the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
“You touch on everything that feels good about Pro Bowl Week, the skills, the caps, the involvement and you wrap that up, keeping the AFC-NFC building, with the most important thing, which is flag football and that opportunity for the league’s executive vice president, club business and league. As far as events go, we have the best athletes in the NFL playing this game.
The league plans to announce the new format on Monday.
“The Pro Bowl is always a time to go back and celebrate the game of football with teammates, fans and family,” Manning told the AP. “All of us at Omaha Productions are grateful to continue to be a part of this week as we work with the NFL to rethink the Pro Bowl. It’s great to see Sunday’s game as a flag football game. Youth football is extremely important. To me, and knowing the NFL FLAG will help grow this sport.” , I hope you can see boys and girls playing the same game as the best players in the world.
Fan voting still helps determine the AFC and NFC team rosters. Tom Brady He has multiple invitations to the Pro Bowl with 15. Four players earned 14 invitations, including Manning. The East-West Shrine Bowl will be played on February 2nd at Allegiant Stadium.
In the year In 1999, Patriots starter Robert Edwards suffered a knee ligament injury and severed an artery in his left leg during an NFL-sanctioned beach flag football game during Pro Bowl week. He missed the entire 1999 and 2000 seasons while rehabbing his knee.