Today is the Sunday between NFL conference championship weekend and the Super Bowl. Once upon a time, more than 10 million people would tune in on this Sunday to watch the Pro Bowl, the NFL’s all-star event that is officially on life support. Now, there’s no Pro Bowl to be had. At least, not like there used to be.
What’s left of the Pro Bowl is now called the Pro Bowl Games and will air on Tuesday night in primetime. It’s a shell of its former self. So much so that two quarterbacks that started games for the Cleveland Browns this season, Shedeur Sanders and Joe Flacco, got the nod as Pro Bowlers this season. Oh, and it’s a flag football game now.
Viewership has predictably deteriorated. Last year’s Pro Bowl Games, still in the traditional Sunday timeslot, averaged just 4.7 million viewers between ABC, ESPN, and Disney XD, a record-low for the event. Tuesday’s Pro Bowl Games figures to be similarly dreadful from a viewership standpoint.
One prominent NFL commentator says enough is enough. On Sunday, Mike Florio came out staunchly against the continuation of the NFL’s all-star event in a piece titled “It’s time to get rid of the Pro Bowl Games.”
“There’s surely a minimum viewership number, below which the entire exercise becomes a bad business proposition,” Florio writes. “The question then becomes whether the league would be willing to treat it as a loss leader, given the NFL’s current fixation on making flag football a far bigger deal than it ever has been.”
“Bottom line? The moment the Pro Bowl Games become a big enough strain on the bottom line, they’ll go the way of the surprise onside kick. And so the message is clear. If you don’t like the Pro Bowl Games, don’t watch. If enough people don’t, the Pro Bowl Games will inevitably be put out of everyone’s misery.”
The event is quickly becoming an embarrassment based on its participants alone. And if it weren’t for the NFL wanting to promote flag football, as Florio points out, it’s likely the league would do away with it entirely. Perhaps so few people will watch this year, the league will come to that decision anyway.