Pro Bowl Getting Changed

Photo+credit%3A+nytimes.com

Photo credit: nytimes.com

David Shaw, OwlFeed Sports Reporter

The National Football League (NFL) changed its most popular event in its history: the Pro Bowl. The Pro Bowl has been around since January of 1951, but the question everyone has for the NFL is what are the reasons why they chose to change it? A source from Espn, Kevin Seifert, said ”If your instinct is to sneer at the idea of a flag football game, then you weren’t paying close enough attention to the “tackle” football on display at the Pro Bowl over the past 10 to 15 years.” A reason for the change is the fact that they weren’t gaining the attention or views they wanted, even though the NFL is already well known.

The NFL is trying to gain more attention even though it is already one of the main popular sports. Kevin Seifert from Espn also says ”Players long ago decided, understandably, to minimize the risk of injury in a meaningless game.”  Nobody in the Pro Bowl was at full speed or breaking down to make a big hit. The NFL was having a lot of trouble getting players to come out and play in the Pro Bowl over the years because of the risk of injuries. Players from the past years that have gotten injured from the Pro Bowl included Tyler Eifert from the Cincinnati Bengals and Vince Wilfork from the New England Patriots. The NFL was going to get rid of the event a while ago, but the reason why they didn’t is they didn’t have enough events or ideas to replace it with.

With COVID-19 being around, the Pro Bowl got canceled, and that became a reason for the changes in the game because players were unable to come to practice as a team for the event. Flag football, for example, doesn’t really need to have much contact but there is still competition. Thus, the game would not need to change as much due to the COVID restrictions. Additionally, the NFL thinks having flag football as their game will inspire girls and boys to play and to get out of their houses. 

Outsiders are also putting in their input on it; some want retired players that still can participate in the Pro Bowl as a Hall of Fame or retired team. While doing research, I saw ideas from the web that people can pick Hall of Famers that want to play and they can be chosen to form their teams. The players can either be retired or still in the league. If they do a flag football game, they choose what the lineman are going to do while they are playing. The NFL says that when thinking about the future, they want kids to think about playing flag football instead of tackle. Even though you’re playing flag, it doesn’t mean you can’t get injured. An example of this is Robert Edwards from the New England Patriots, who suffered from a catastrophic knee from playing flag football. As a result of the Pro Bowl getting changed, the NFL will always try to have ideas to make the future of football better.