NFL reportedly will eliminate Pro Bowl pay this season
The 2020 NFL season beginning as scheduled is highly uncertain due to the coronavirus pandemic, but it appears the league may have made a decision regarding the Pro Bowl.
According to NFL Network's Mike Garafolo, Pro Bowl pay for the 2020 campaign has been eliminated. Players on the winning team typically receive $74,000, while players on the losing side get $37,000.
With the elimination of Pro Bowl pay comes the inevitability that the entire event gets canceled for the upcoming season. Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio explains that no player would play in the game voluntarily, nor would the NFL bring players to Las Vegas amid rapidly spreading cases in Nevada. Florio writes:
"Unless an effective vaccine has been created and distributed by late January (which is highly unlikely at this point), the NFL won’t be able to justify staging a meaningless game that creates unnecessary risk to everyone associated with it at the height of cold and flu season, especially after playing enough games to even get to the point that the Pro Bowl would be played."
If the Pro Bowl is canceled this season, it could be for the best. In 2019, Pro Bowl television ratings were down 8 percent from 2018, according to sportsmediawatch.com, and averaged just under 8 million viewers. With the ratings continuing to drop each year, it doesn't make much sense to put players at risk of COVID-19 infection...especially if they aren't being paid.
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