Roger Goodell explains why NFL is doing away with the Pro Bowl game

A Wednesday report revealed that the NFL is officially eliminating the Pro Bowl as a game and will instead name 88 Pro Bowlers and honor them in Los Angeles before the Super Bowl this coming February.

As shared by Mark Maske of Front Office Sports, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell later touched upon the decision to scrap the Pro Bowl as it had been known in recent years. 

Roger Goodell: Pro Bowl game doesn't need to exist to honor players

"I think this is something that we talked to our players about, the Pro Bowl players in particular," Goodell explained. "We had conference calls the last couple years: What’s working? What’s not? What would you like to see? And the number one thing that came out — and there were a lot of wonderful comments by the players — one is: 'We want to be honored and celebrated as a Pro Bowl player.' …It just opened my eyes. I never really thought about it in the context of that. It’s not honoring the replacement players. It’s honoring the guys who are selected by the fans, by the players, by the coaches."

Charean Williams of Pro Football Talk noted that "the NFL has had more than 100 Pro Bowlers in recent years because of players who were either too injured or disinterested in participating." Perhaps most controversially, Shedeur Sanders of the Cleveland Browns was added to the Pro Bowl Games roster as a replacement for New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye in early 2026 even though Sanders was responsible for some of the worst stats produced by a starting signal-caller over the second half of the campaign. 

As mentioned by ESPN, the league shifted to the Pro Bowl Games format in 2023. Such events had included flag football and skills challenges. 

"And so that was really the core of it, is: How do we do this in the right way? And our players, you know, they did what they normally do. They had great recommendations on how to do that," Goodell continued. "And second, a willingness to lead that the all-star format doesn’t really work for our game…It’s something that we felt strongly about. And I think our players, they deserve to be celebrated when they get the Pro Bowl honor."

Roger Goodell: The Pro Bowl as a game was not "up to NFL standards"

It's also worth noting that fan interest in the Pro Bowl and the Pro Bowl Games was seemingly at an all-time low this past winter. Per Tyler Lauletta of Awful Announcing, 6.7 million viewers tuned in for the first flag football portion of the Pro Bowl Games in 2023. In 2026, that number plummeted to a record-low 1.9 million viewers.

"I think we’ve been focused on the game," Goodell added. "You’ve heard me say it for many years about the quality of the game in the Pro Bowl. I don’t think it’s up to NFL standards. And that’s why we changed to the flag game several years ago. So I’m not sure the last time you want to say we played a game in a football sense." 

As Goodell alluded to, this is a decision that had been coming for years. Perhaps most interestingly, Wednesday's developments could spark further debates on sports programs regarding whether any league should hold an all-star game at a time when it's easier than ever before for fans to watch competitive out-of-market contests.