Let’s take you 87 years into the past… Long before air travel allowed Los Angeles to crack the Northeast and Midwest-dominated NFL, the city was starving. Though rapidly growing into a wealthy metropolis, the city lacked national prestige and what’d make it a cultural equal to its East Coast counterparts: an NFL franchise. But not for long. As Chicago Tribune sports editor Arch Ward’s brainchild, the MLB and the College All-Star Games catapulted to huge hits with the latter drawing nearly 80,000 fans to Soldier Field in 1934, the Los Angeles Times followed suit.

In January 1939, the newspaper invited 1938 NFL champion, the New York Giants, to LA’s Wrigley Field for a charity game benefiting the Salvation Army. But there was a catch. Knowing the Giants alone wouldn’t draw crowds, organizers did the unthinkable: Along with fan-voted NFL stars, they selected non-NFL local ringers from the Los Angeles Bulldogs and the Hollywood Stars. The trick worked as 15,000 spectators showed up despite miserable weather. Now that’s dedication… something that’s almost entirely missing now and has prompted the NFL to take a tough decision, thanks (in part) to Shedeur Sanders! 

“The NFL Pro Bowl is being eliminated,” The Athletic reported this week about the event that was rebranded to its current name in 1951 and has carried the tradition for 75 years. “On Wednesday, league executives presented to team owners the future of the Pro Bowl, which will no longer have a standalone game — be it tackle or flag football — or games. Eighty-eight players will receive the Pro Bowl honor with no alternates, corralling a key aspect of the all-star event that had gotten out of whack in recent years.”

Notably, players will still be selected through voting by fans, coaches, and other players. The selected members will then attend an in-person celebration held in Los Angeles instead of the usual game. They will also receive special uniforms and a “unique commemorative keepsake”. But while the announcement brings an end to months of speculation, it isn’t really surprising given the negative attention the NFL Pro Bowl managed to garner in recent years. For starters, or what fans like to call the final straw, was Shedeur Sanders.

The Shedeur Sanders “caught-in-the-crossfires” effect

Despite being the worst quarterback in the NFL statistically with seven touchdowns, 10 interceptions, a meagre 68.1 passer rating and 18.9 QBR, the 24-year-old was named to the Pro Bowl roster as New England Patriots QB Drake Maye’s replacement. And, boy, were folks disappointed!

As The Oberlin Review’s Micah Rodriguez noted: “An event that once featured star safety Sean Taylor laying out a punter at full speed has quickly developed into a heavily marketed flag football game. In choosing Sanders, the NFL very clearly chose his influence over performance.”

But he wasn’t the only detractor. Even Sanders’ contemporaries and former players felt the same way. New York Giants offensive lineman Jermaine Eluemunor, for example, didn’t hold back one bit.

“No hate but the Pro Bowl a joke lol,” Eluemunor posted on X in January this year. “[Andrew Thomas] Top LT in the NFL hasn’t made one yet but if you’re popular you get in. Laughable at this point. Like I said no hate but how’s Cam Ward not the replacement? lol both him and [Jaxson] Dart went off this season.”

Three-time Pro Bowler and former linebacker Shawne Merriman also chimed in.

“I have a Pro Bowl helmet that I walk by almost every day,” he wrote. “It’s signed by some of the best players in the history of the NFL, legends, HOF’ers and real GOAT’s. The Pro Bowl use to be a badge of honor and respected. Things have changed.”

But truthfully speaking, the onus isn’t just on the Cleveland Browns’ quarterback at this point. We shouldn’t forget that the event was already going through a downward spiral in recent years in the first place.

Pro-Bowl? More like No-Bowl!

Let’s just admit it outright. Nobody was watching the NFL Pro Bowl anymore. When you compare it to its All-Star counterparts in the NBA or the MLB, the numbers look even more dismal.

Starting with 2023, when the Pro Bowl games rebranded into the first flag football event edition, 6.7 viewers tuned. Many argue that number was hit merely out of curiosity because the very next year, that number dropped to 5.75 million, with 4.7 million viewers in 2025 and a lowly 1.9 million this year. Now compare that to the NBA: 4.6 million in 2o23, 5.4 million in 2024, 4.7 million in 2025 and a 87% year-on-year increase to 8.8 million (across NBC, Peacock, Telemundo, and NBC) viewers this year. As for the MLB, the viewership stands at 7.006 million in 2023, 7.44 million in 2024, and 7.19 and 8.79 million viewers in 2025 and 2026, respectively.

Even NFL executives admitted something was genuinely going wrong.

“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 said, as reported by 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. You always consider that, but I think when you boil it down, we kept coming back to: Is that the best representation of our sport, of these players? What’s the Pro Bowl about? It’s about recognizing the best of the best. No replacements. Eighty-eight.”

The Pro Bowl risked the very careers it meant to honor

When Tyler Eifert arrived at the January 2016 game, he did so as one of the premier tight ends in football. Finishing a massive breakout year with 52 passes for 615 yards and an impressive 13 touchdowns, his first Pro Bowl selection was much deserved. However, during the Pro Bowl game, what instead happened was Eifert going up for a pass and landing awkwardly, suffering what was initially diagnosed as a sprained ankle. The injury lingered for months and ultimately required surgery in May, which forced him to miss training camp and also the first six games of the 2016 regular season.

While the player had other injuries in his career (including as a back injury later that season, and a broken ankle in 2018, resulting in only 14 games played between 2014 and 2018), the Pro Bowl injury was the turning point. Eifert could never replicate his 2015 success.

“I’d like to make it [to the Pro Bowl], but I’m not going to go if I got asked,” Eifert later said in December of 2016. It was one of the best experiences I’ve ever had. But it’s just not worth it.

The most recent example is of Myles Garrett, who was injured while racing Carolina Panthers defensive end Brian Burns “through an obstacle course in Las Vegas as part of the Pro Bowl’s reimagined format”. The player reportedly noted how his right foot felt numb after hitting his big toe on a wall.

“Run-away-from-the-cops obstacle course,” Garrett said. “Jumping over walls and fences. Doesn’t make sense to me. It’s just frustrating. But by the time the season rolls around, I don’t think it will be an issue.”

What’s more, as per reports, some players don’t even bother showing up showing up at the Games anymore. In 2022, for example, a number of players like Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, Keenan Allen, Joey Bosa, Lamar Jackson and Bobby Wagner missed the event.

“It’s a long season, players are beat up,” one NFC coach told Sports Illustrated. “It’s hard on them as players [to play in another game].”

“People are not prepping for the Pro Bowl in the same way you prep for a regular season game because it is ultimately for a meaningless concept,” Irwin Kishner, co-chair of the Sports Law Group, told Boardroom.

Looks like the game that started as a clever spectacle in 1939 has finally run its course, leaving behind the only thing that ever truly mattered: the prestige of being named among the league’s very best.