The penultimate football game of the 2022 season is going to look very different.
The NFL announced on Monday that the annual all-star event known as the Pro Bowl will now become “The Pro Bowl Games,” and the week of festivities will no longer culminate in a padded football game.
Skills competitions, musical performances, and fan-friendly events like dodgeball will still make up much of the weeklong celebration, with popular voting still deciding which players get the honor of a Pro Bowl nomination. But at week’s end, the marquee event will pit the AFC and NFC squads against one another in a game of flag football.
Cowboys guard Zack Martin, linebacker Micah Parsons, cornerback Trevon Diggs, and punter Bryan Anger were voted in last year as Pro Bowl starters, though Martin did not play due to injury. Left tackle Tyron Smith was chosen as a reserve but was also injured and declined to attend. Wide receiver CeeDee Lamb went as an alternate player. Quarterback Dak Prescott was invited as an alternate but opted out in order to get a head start on his offseason recovery.
Peyton Manning has already been confirmed as a member of one of the coaching staffs for the game that will be played Feb. 5 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. The Super Bowl will take place the following week in Glendale, Ariz.
Participation in the Pro Bowl game has fallen off over the years, to the point that the game itself is essentially a walkthrough for the players who attend. In recent years, the skills competitions and surrounding events have created far more excitement and buzz; these changes seek to capitalize on that and give fans more legitimate competition while keeping players out of harm’s way by minimizing the risk of injury.
“We’ve received invaluable feedback from players, teams and fans about re-imagining the Pro Bowl, and as a result, we’re thrilled to use The Pro Bowl Games as a platform to spotlight flag football as an integral part of the sport’s future while also introducing fun, new forms of competition and entertainment that will bring our players, their families and fans closer than ever before,” Peter O’Reilly, NFL EVP of club business and league events, said in a statement.
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