The NFL is moving the Pro Bowl to Super Bowl week with an eye towards the introduction of flag football at the upcoming 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
‘We’ve spent a lot of time evolving our Pro Bowl, talking about how to make our Pro Bowl more attractive, both for our players participating, but also our fans,’ NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said at the league meetings in Manhattan on Wednesday. ‘We’ve spent a great deal of time talking about the objectives, and the objectives really are to celebrate and honor our incredible players and second is to use our game as a global platform.’
And it’s that global platform that sparked the NFL’s decision to move the Pro Bowl to Super Bowl LV week, when much of the world will be focused on Santa Clara.
‘We’ve decided that we’re going to use the platform we have, obviously with the Olympics coming up, players having the ability to participate, to move the Pro Bowl into our biggest week with our biggest players, and that’s the Super Bowl week,’ Goodell said.
Previously held on the Sunday before the Super Bowl, the upcoming flag football All-Star extravaganza will kick off on Tuesday, February 3, at 8pm EST on ESPN, Disney XD and ESPN Deportes.
The event had been criticized for years for its lack of competitiveness as players were reluctant to play at full speed and risk injury. In 2023, the NFL adopted a flag football game to replace the fully padded exhibition.
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NFL commissioner Roger Goodell speaks during a news conference at the NFL meetings
