After years of declining interest despite a number of format changes the NFL has pulled the plug on the whole affair and will now simply honor the players making the “Pro Bowl” with some sort of celebration after the season. A total of 88 players will be selected.

Is it time college football follows suit? Does anyone care about the various All Star games anymore? The Senior Bowl is more of a scouting combine than focused on the game. I get the NCAA doesn’t sponsor the games so if they make money that’s all that matters. But do people still watch or care about them? I can’t remember the last time I paid attention to them. Do the Hula Bowl and Shrine game still exist?

(08-26-2026 05:47 PM)AssKickingChicken Wrote:  After years of declining interest despite a number of format changes the NFL has pulled the plug on the whole affair and will now simply honor the players making the “Pro Bowl” with some sort of celebration after the season. A total of 88 players will be selected.

Is it time college football follows suit? Does anyone care about the various All Star games anymore? The Senior Bowl is more of a scouting combine than focused on the game. I get the NCAA doesn’t sponsor the games so if they make money that’s all that matters. But do people still watch or care about them? I can’t remember the last time I paid attention to them. Do the Hula Bowl and Shrine game still exist?

Huhn, it seems the Hula Bowl is still being played, though it was dormant between 2009 and 2019.

I guess it won't return to Hawaii until the stadium construction is finished.

(08-26-2026 05:47 PM)AssKickingChicken Wrote:  NFL cancels the Pro Bowl

Canceled from our household TV's sometime in the 1990's

(08-26-2026 05:47 PM)AssKickingChicken Wrote:  After years of declining interest despite a number of format changes the NFL has pulled the plug on the whole affair and will now simply honor the players making the “Pro Bowl” with some sort of celebration after the season. A total of 88 players will be selected.

Is it time college football follows suit? Does anyone care about the various All Star games anymore? The Senior Bowl is more of a scouting combine than focused on the game. I get the NCAA doesn’t sponsor the games so if they make money that’s all that matters. But do people still watch or care about them? I can’t remember the last time I paid attention to them. Do the Hula Bowl and Shrine game still exist?

The Senior Bowl was never about the game for the players, coaches, scouts and NFL owners. The practices mean so much more. They want to see who these kids learn, practice and gel with other players. The game is just the reward for a week of work. It has been an event in Mobile for a long time, forever it was our only touch of college football.

The Hula Bowl and Shrine Game have turned into more of showcases for NFL scouts, too. As long as that’s the case, they’ll serve a purpose.

Once the Pro Bowl went away from being an actual tackle football game, it simply lost any real allure. And don’t get me wrong - it simply wasn’t worth risking any players getting hurt in that game (particularly when they’re all stars). It’s just not realistic to play football halfway in safe way - it’s either full contact how you would normally play or don’t play it at all.

It makes sense that they still will name Pro Bowlers since players still want that honor (and often the additional bonus that they have in their contract if they’re a Pro Bowl player).

We can’t just have a bowling tournament?

(08-26-2026 09:45 PM)Usajags Wrote:  

(08-26-2026 05:47 PM)AssKickingChicken Wrote:  After years of declining interest despite a number of format changes the NFL has pulled the plug on the whole affair and will now simply honor the players making the “Pro Bowl” with some sort of celebration after the season. A total of 88 players will be selected.

Is it time college football follows suit? Does anyone care about the various All Star games anymore? The Senior Bowl is more of a scouting combine than focused on the game. I get the NCAA doesn’t sponsor the games so if they make money that’s all that matters. But do people still watch or care about them? I can’t remember the last time I paid attention to them. Do the Hula Bowl and Shrine game still exist?

The Senior Bowl was never about the game for the players, coaches, scouts and NFL owners. The practices mean so much more. They want to see who these kids learn, practice and gel with other players. The game is just the reward for a week of work. It has been an event in Mobile for a long time, forever it was our only touch of college football.

Players like Quinn Meinerz are the reason that the Senior Bowl Game is invaluable to players and scouts and is not going away. Meinerz played at D3 Wisconsin-Whitewater and was an injury replacement in the Senior Bowl and played so well he was drafted in the third round by Denver, where he has become a two-time first team All-Pro offensive guard. Before the Senior Bowl, Meinerz was considered a late round pick or an undrafted free agent. The other all-star games are useful as well, but there is nothing like the Senior Bowl.

The Pro Bowl has become pointless, but getting chosen to the Pro Bowl is still important, especially when it comes to contracts and bonuses.

The college all stars (e.g. Senior Bowl, Shrine Bowl) are really NFL scout games. They are used to evaluate players who are not in the top three or four rounds of the draft. Think of them like the Portsmouth Invitational (PIT) and G League Elite Camp before the NBA Combine, a chance for players not on the draft board list to make an impact.

As for the NFL Pro Bowl, it sucked, good riddance.

I can see the NFL making the Pro Bowl show a big extravaganza. Have it on the weekend before the Super Bowl at the site of the game so the players in the Super Bowl who make the team will be there. Put it on TV and you could have a big three hour show with the players there and showing highlights plus a preview of the game.

The Pro Bowl has sucked for a long time now. It went soft, just like the NFL is going soft. I miss the football the NFL was playing back in the 1970’s, when the Raiders were smoking cigarettes on the sidelines and guys were clotheslining each other. Much more fun to watch.

I just wish they'd bring back the skills challenge. Have the kickers play horse, do the strongest man competitions, fastest man, RB gauntlet, longest throw, most accurate, etc.

(08-27-2026 10:55 AM)Bobcat2013 Wrote:  I just wish they'd bring back the skills challenge. Have the kickers play horse, do the strongest man competitions, fastest man, RB gauntlet, longest throw, most accurate, etc.

This was my favorite. I never liked the game because it was meaningless. I watched the MLB All-Star game until it lost its meaning for World Series home-field advantage.

With CTE running rampant among retired NFL players, I can't blame active players for not wanting to participate in the Pro Bowl.

It was a nice event, but times have changed.

(08-27-2026 09:49 AM)AssKickingChicken Wrote:  I can see the NFL making the Pro Bowl show a big extravaganza. Have it on the weekend before the Super Bowl at the site of the game so the players in the Super Bowl who make the team will be there. Put it on TV and you could have a big three hour show with the players there and showing highlights plus a preview of the game.

They’ve tried everything already. They did move the Pro Bowl back to the week before the Super Bowl and attempted different sites, including different times at the same site as the Super Bowl. What you’re describing seems to be akin to the current NFL Honors show where they name the MVP, Walter Payton Man of the Year, and other awards that is a few days before the Super Bowl. That’s already televised.

There’s just only so much that you can do if you can’t play a “real” football game even for an entity as popular as the NFL.

Ever since Robert Edwards almost lost his leg from Pro Bowl activities after his rookie year, I've not enjoyed that game. That may have also been the beginning of the end of the game as we knew it.

(08-27-2026 01:04 PM)e-parade Wrote:  Ever since Robert Edwards almost lost his leg from Pro Bowl activities after his rookie year, I've not enjoyed that game. That may have also been the beginning of the end of the game as we knew it.

That happened in 1998. In "flag" football.

(08-27-2026 01:27 PM)Rube Dali Wrote:  

(08-27-2026 01:04 PM)e-parade Wrote:  Ever since Robert Edwards almost lost his leg from Pro Bowl activities after his rookie year, I've not enjoyed that game. That may have also been the beginning of the end of the game as we knew it.

That happened in 1998. In "flag" football.

Yup. It was an entirely "for fun" thing (where people were still trying because it was fun to win) that almost resulted in a leg being amputated and for sure basically ended what would have been a decently successful career (severely upended it at least). I can't blame athletes who saw that suddenly saying "hey, uh...why would we risk something like that for a meaningless game?" and we slowly got into no defense being played and then eventually flag football.

I’m curious what the impact will be on the NFL schedule—will they still take a week off between the Conference Championships and the Super Bowl? If so, this could be a great opportunity for college football.

With all the expanded CFP talks, the NYE/D bowl season could become the round of 16 rather than the quarterfinals.

Work the quarterfinals in around the NFL playoffs.

Pro Bowl weekend becomes CFP semifinals weekend.

Play the CFP national title the day before the Super Bowl.

With that timeline, no one loses their CCGs, Army-Navy still get a special time slot and there’s plenty of time to cull a 20-24 team playoff field down to 16 in time for the big bowls.

(08-28-2026 07:56 AM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  I’m curious what the impact will be on the NFL schedule—will they still take a week off between the Conference Championships and the Super Bowl? If so, this could be a great opportunity for college football.

With all the expanded CFP talks, the NYE/D bowl season could become the round of 16 rather than the quarterfinals.

Work the quarterfinals in around the NFL playoffs.

Pro Bowl weekend becomes CFP semifinals weekend.

Play the CFP national title the day before the Super Bowl.

With that timeline, no one loses their CCGs, Army-Navy still get a special time slot and there’s plenty of time to cull a 20-24 team playoff field down to 16 in time for the big bowls.

For many years, the Pro Bowl was after the Super Bowl so I don’t see them cancelling the off week.

While it can be annoying to fans, I imagine the teams are happy for the break. It gives more time for any minor injuries to heal. They have more time to travel to the game site, extremely useful if the game is 3,000 miles from the conference championship sites. Coaches have more time to watch film and come up with a game plan against an opponent they didn’t know was on the schedule until the last minute.

Yes, they all manage to do this without a break 15 times in the regular season (excluding opening week and after the bye) and throughout the playoffs. But this is the Super Bowl. A couple days of rest after the CCG is needed to come down from the euphoria of qualifying for the Super Bowl and preparing for all the hype that comes with it.

Finally.

It went from almost a real game in the Seventies to a total farce and a waste of time, not worth watching at all.