The Pro Bowl as we know it is reportedly coming to an end.
At the end of this season, the league will instead play a flag football game at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas on Sunday, February 5, according to Rob Maaddi of the Associated Press.
The league will also have what it is calling “Pro Bowl Games” during the week before the Super Bowl, which will consist of skills competitions between AFC and NFC players. The league has already been experimenting with a skills competition before the Pro Bowl but will apparently be attempting to make these a bigger event for both the fans and the players involved.
Peyton Manning will be one of the coaches for the flag football game, and his Omaha Productions company, which produces the ManningCast Monday Night Football broadcast, will be involved.
The Pro Bowl has been widely derided in recent years as being effectively flag football anyway, so the league has apparently decided to make that change official.