NFL Drops Pro Bowl Game

The NFL's all-star weekend is losing the game but keeping the honor. Starting with the upcoming season, the league will stop staging the Pro Bowl Games and instead simply name 88 players to a Pro Bowl class in late December—with no alternates added if honorees drop out. League officials say the move is meant to restore the designation's prestige, ESPN reports. "A Pro Bowl selection will return to its original purpose, honoring the best of the best," said Executive Vice President Peter O'Reilly, noting the league wants the label to carry more weight for players and fans.

Players selected will still be invited to an in-person celebration in Los Angeles on the traditional Pro Bowl weekend, but there will be no AFC-vs.-NFC matchup or skills events. The shift follows what NFL football operations chief Troy Vincent described as extended talks with players, who stressed that the recognition from peers, coaches, and fans is what matters most. The change ends a Pro Bowl game tradition that dates back in some form to 1938 and recently morphed into flag football and skills challenges. "It's OK to be the first league to walk away from a competitive all-star game," O'Reilly said at the owners' meeting in Atlanta, per the AP.