It’s official. As if there was any doubt.
The NFL and NFL Players Association have finalized the agreement on a 2023 replacement for the Pro Bowl.
The letter agreement, dated November 8, documents the NFL’s decision to not hold a Pro Bowl game to cap the 2023 season. It also includes the terms pursuant to which the Pro Bowl Games will be played.
The activities will consist of a skills competition during the week and a Sunday flag-football game, with linemen participating in a “skill-related activity” in lieu of playing in the seven-on-seven game.
The members of the team that prevails in the Pro Bowl Games will get $88,000 each. The losing team members will receive $44,000 each.
The league replaced the Pro Bowl with the Pro Bowl Games last year. Enough people watched to justify continuing the Pro Bowl Games as an alternative to what had become a game of two-hand touch in full pads.
And for good reason. In today’s NFL, there’s no reason to subject players to potential injury while playing a full-contact game of tackle football. Which is way the game had become low-contact, no-tackle football during the final years of its existence.
So look for a similar agreement to be reached each and ever year, for the balance of the current labor deal.
