NFL moves its Pro Bowl festivities to Super Bowl week

NEW YORK (AP) — The NFL is moving its Pro Bowl festivities to Super Bowl week starting next February, the latest adjustment for the all-star event that became a flag football game a few years ago.

Commissioner Roger Goodell announced the change Wednesday at the league’s annual fall owners’ meeting.

“We’ve spent a lot of time evolving our Pro Bowl, thinking about how to make it more engaging, both for our participating players but also for our fans,” Goodell said. “We spent a lot of time talking about the goals, and the goals are really to celebrate and honor our incredible players, and secondly, to use our game as a global platform.”

The plan is to host the Pro Bowl Games on Tuesday evening, February 3, at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, the venue that hosts the Super Bowl Experience Fan Festival. The larger ballroom can accommodate 4,000 people, making it a more intimate, television-focused event than in previous years.

It’s still a flag football game between the AFC and NFC — a format that began in the winter of 2023 — although executive vice president of international events Peter O’Reilly acknowledged the Pro Bowl could become more international as the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles approaches.

“The flag has become a global game,” Goodell said. “Our players have embraced this format in the all-star format, and we think it’s really important to continue this initiative.”

NFL owners unanimously approved players’ participation in the 28 Games, although work is still underway to finalize the agreement with the union.

The 49ers will host the Super Bowl on Sunday, February 8 at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California. It returns to SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, outside Los Angeles, in 2027 and is scheduled to take place at Mercedes Benz Stadium in Atlanta in 2028.

Starting in 2026, there will be two new coaches, replacing Peyton and Eli Manning, although O’Reilly said the brothers will remain involved in the event in some capacity. The league is not committed to playing Tuesday night beyond next year, according to O’Reilly, who said it is a process to continue to learn what is best for the Pro Bowl.

Goodell said the league met with 15 to 20 players for an hour over the summer to get their thoughts on the event that was named the Pro Bowl in 1951 and played in Los Angeles before becoming a fixture in Honolulu every year until 2012 and moving around since then.

___

AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl