{"id":560657,"date":"2026-02-02T09:52:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-02T09:52:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/560657\/"},"modified":"2026-02-02T09:52:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T09:52:11","slug":"mike-florio-calls-for-end-to-pro-bowl-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/560657\/","title":{"rendered":"Mike Florio calls for end to Pro Bowl Games"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>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\u2019s all-star event that is officially on life support. Now, there\u2019s no Pro Bowl to be had. At least, not like there used to be.<\/p>\n<p>What\u2019s left of the Pro Bowl is now called the Pro Bowl Games and will air on <a href=\"https:\/\/awfulannouncing.com\/nfl\/pro-bowl-games-tuesday-super-bowl-week.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Tuesday night in primetime<\/a>. It\u2019s 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\u2019s a flag football game now.<\/p>\n<p>Viewership has <a href=\"https:\/\/awfulannouncing.com\/nfl\/pro-bowl-hits-record-low-struggles-find-successful-format.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">predictably deteriorated<\/a>. Last year\u2019s 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\u2019s Pro Bowl Games figures to be similarly dreadful from a viewership standpoint.<\/p>\n<p>One prominent NFL commentator says enough is enough. On Sunday, Mike Florio came out staunchly against the continuation of the NFL\u2019s all-star event in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcsports.com\/nfl\/profootballtalk\/rumor-mill\/news\/its-time-to-get-rid-of-the-pro-bowl-games\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">a piece titled \u201cIt\u2019s time to get rid of the Pro Bowl Games.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s surely a minimum viewership number, below which the entire exercise becomes a bad business proposition,\u201d Florio writes. \u201cThe question then becomes whether the league would be willing to treat it as a loss leader, given the NFL\u2019s current fixation on making flag football a far bigger deal than it ever has been.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBottom line? The moment the Pro Bowl Games become a big enough strain on the bottom line, they\u2019ll go the way of the surprise onside kick. And so the message is clear. If you don\u2019t like the Pro Bowl Games, don\u2019t watch. If enough people don\u2019t, the Pro Bowl Games will inevitably be put out of everyone\u2019s misery.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The event is quickly becoming an embarrassment based on its participants alone. And if it weren\u2019t for the NFL wanting to promote flag football, as Florio points out, it\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Today is the Sunday between NFL conference championship weekend and the Super Bowl. Once upon a time, more&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":560658,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[10],"tags":[26829,244511,62,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-560657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-mike-florio","tag-pro-bowl-games","tag-sports","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116000427460844401","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=560657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560657\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/560658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=560657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=560657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=560657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}