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RIP to the Pro Bowl
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The NFL is eliminating the Pro Bowl Games, instead shifting the focus to celebrating the honor of being a Pro Bowl selection.
Beginning with the 2026 season, 88 players will be named to the Pro Bowl class in late December, with no replacement selections.
“It’s OK to be the first league to walk away from a competitive all-star game,” NFL executive vice president Peter O’Reilly said.
While no AFC vs. NFC game will be held, players selected as Pro Bowlers will be invited to attend an in-person celebration in Los Angeles during the traditional weekend the Pro Bowl Games took place.
Agree with O’Reilly. It’s okay to walk away. The Pro Bowl Games weren’t serving much of a purpose anyway. Fans didn’t seem very interested in football that amounted to meaningless exhibition. Same thing with the Pro Bowl itself before the format shifted back in 2022.
The theme around the NFL is that only the regular season and playoffs matter. The preseason has been cut down to three games in which some teams don’t even play their starters. The Eagles are one of those teams, at least on the offensive side of the ball. They’ll use a couple of fringe starters on the defensive side. But there’s seemingly more value in high-rep joint practices, as we saw last week with the Birds and Pats.
You wonder if the other leagues may follow suit and ditch their respective All-Star Games. The Major League Baseball ASG that took place in Philly last month was terrible, just a horrendous experience. The NBA All-Star Game features no defense. The NHL All-Star Game wasn’t even played in 2026 because of the winter Olympic Break and Major League Soccer currently does an MLS vs. Liga MX format that’s starting to get stale.
The only thing that’s goofy about this is that someday our kids will ask, “why are All Stars called Pro Bowlers?” And we will have to explain to them that these individual honors are named after a game that used to be played up until 2026.
RIP to the Pro Bowl. At least we will always have the clips:
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com