NFL is finally ditching the Pro Bowl game

The NFL's fans and players have been making one point increasingly clear over the past decade — nobody cares about the Pro Bowl, or whatever collection of games and activities the league tried to cook up to create interest.

The league has listened.

According to a report from the Athletic's Jonathan Jones on Wednesday, the Pro Bowl is officially being eliminated as a game.

Pro Bowl honors will remain, but the game is no more

Jones reports that league executives presented a plan to the 32 owners that will include 88 players receiving Pro Bowl honors, with no alternates and that no game will be played.

In recent years the tackle football aspect of the game had been replaced by a series of flag football events, but it never seemed to catch on.

Not only did fans not care, but it was a challenge getting players to want to participate. 

The AFC-NFC Pro Bowls began with the merger in 1970, and were played as an All-Star game at the conclusion of each season. It was traditionally held in Hawaii, and for decades, it was able to present itself as a real football game with the two conferences playing for bragging rights. 

For a while, players really cared. 

But like all All-Star games across the four major North American sports, players started losing interest. 

The key quote at the Athletic from Jones' report:

“All-Star games, I think, for all leagues have been fraught for a long time, and they haven’t necessarily represented the very best premium of that sport for those players,” Peter O’Reilly, NFL executive vice president of club business, international and league events, told The Athletic. “I think all leagues have struggled with that. We made the switch four years ago from the ‘tackle’ Pro Bowl to the flag game, and that was more strategic for us. In many ways, we saw a decrease in the replacement players.

“But ultimately, the Pro Bowl, at its core, is about honoring the best of the best in that season, on the field, in real games. And the shift here is about shifting the focus from the game — which is ultimately where people’s attention goes, especially the replacement players tied to it — to the honor.”

A free trip to Hawaii was no longer much incentive for players who made enough money to travel anywhere they wanted.

The risk of injury in a game that didn't matter or count for anything also became too much of a deterrent when free agency and big contracts were lurking on the horizon. 

As players stopped caring, so did fans.

That resulted in the NFL trying everything and anything to boost interest. Fantasy drafts, flag football games, new locations and just about anything else that could have been changed was attempted — and all failed. 

Now that the NFL has made the decision to eliminate its All-Star game, it is worth wondering when the other leagues will follow suit.

The NHL has been gradually inching down that path as it has started to replace its game with international tournaments, including the 4 Nations Face-off, the World Cup of Hockey and Olympic involvement. They have had just three actual All-Star games over the past six years.