Hey, Roger Goodell, It’s Time to Fix the Pro Bowl

What used to be a badge of honor within professional football has since been diminished into a money-making spectacle for the league.

The Pro Bowl is awful.

While every all-star game in the four major sports is a waste, the Pro Bowl is an especially grim event. Unlike the other games, football can’t be played to any reasonable account without some sort of roughness. Going to a flag football format is better, but it’s still a cheapened version of the sport.

The result is a game that rivals the level of competition you’d expect from playing shuffleboard.

Yet the Pro Bowl still goes on, mostly because it makes the NFL money. But at some point, it needs to be scrapped.

The 2023 Pro Bowl took place in Las Vegas, at the site of this year’s Super Bowl :: Kirby Lee/USA TODAY Sports

This wouldn’t be the first time the NFL did away with a staple. In the 1960s, the league installed something called the Playoff Bowl, perennially held for the second-place teams in the Eastern and Western Conferences. It was a trip to Miami and the venerable Orange Bowl, with teams playing for a little extra money and the title of third place.

It lasted 10 years and then quietly faded into oblivion.

But at least the Playoff Bowl was played competitively. The Pro Bowl has not only been a sham on the field for years, but it’s also a problem from a historical context.

For years now, players have eschewed going, either because they’re going to the Super Bowl (the league moved the Pro Bowl from after the Super Bowl to before it in 2009), or because an “injury” popped up, forcing alternates to be named.

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How embarrassing has that situation become? Consider the following:

The first Pro Bowl was in 1950. That year, 63 players were named to the rosters. By ’70, the first season of the AFL-NFL merger, the 26-team league saw 85 players named Pro Bowlers.

In 2002, the first year of the current 32-team setup, 99 players were honored as Pro Bowlers.

Last year? A whopping 112 players were Pro Bowlers, including 24 alternates and another 23 who didn’t play in the game. In 2021, there were 115 players named to the rosters.

For decades, Hall of Fame voters used the Pro Bowl as part of their reasoning for either including or excluding potential members. Now it’s become more of a farce than ever. Last year, Baltimore Ravens quarterback Tyler Huntley went to the Pro Bowl with two touchdown passes against three interceptions … on the season.

Derek Carr, Huntley and Lawrence were alternates for starter Patrick Mahomes last season :: Kirby Lee/USA TODAY Sports

So instead of giving us more of the same in 2025, here are a few suggestions for commissioner Roger Goodell to consider:

Keep the skills competition, but only allow coaches to vote on Pro Bowlers

Cap the number of Pro Bowlers at 90 players. Use the following guideline, and if players decline the event, replacements being named do not have the accolade count toward their official résumès.

• 8 players each: WR, DE, OLB, CB
• 6 players each: QB, RB, OG, OT, DT, ILB, S
• 4 players each: C, ST (returners and gunners)
• 2 players each: FB, K, P, LS

Go back to the Quarterback Challenge

Everyone who competes gets $1 million. Half goes to their charity of choice. Pro Bowlers are named, and nothing else.

Move the game back to Hawai‘i and put it after the season again

By doing this, every player will be eligible to play, and more will want to go for a vacation. With all due respect to Orlando, Fla., it’s not Honolulu.

Have players try to defeat carnival games

This is an instant money-maker. Give us defensive linemen swinging a sledgehammer to see who hits the bell the fastest. Give us quarterbacks attempting to throw darts at tiny balloons. Give us linebackers trying to score a basket on a 20-foot hoop. Does it make sense? No, but it’s incredibly entertaining.

Ultimately, any suggestion that involves a more intriguing format is worthwhile.

For years, the Pro Bowl has been an unwatchable slog, with most of the sport’s true stars declining to participate, or being unable to with the Super Bowl coming up. What once was a meaningful exhibition played for bonuses and legitimate pride has become a nuisance and afterthought—largely forgotten and always panned.

Goodell and the NFL should take a hard look at the Pro Bowl and revamp it once and for all. Because right now, the product is a flop.