ATLANTA—The NFL and its players collaborated on two significant developments unveiled Wednesday. The league eliminated its Pro Bowl game and implemented a player-accountability system that will result in an automatic one-game suspension for any player who violates specified safety rules three times this season.
The NFL scrapped the Pro Bowl after years of searching for ways to make the game more competitive and more appealing to fans. Most recently, the league converted the event to a flag football game, accompanied by skills competitions.
“I think we’ve been focused on the game,” NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said at the completion of a one-day owners’ meeting at an airport hotel in Atlanta. “You’ve heard me say it for many years about the quality of the game in the Pro Bowl: I don’t think it’s up to NFL standards.”
The league will continue to select and honor Pro Bowl players. It said it will choose 88 Pro Bowlers annually, without having to name replacements as it did in previous years when players withdrew from game participation. This season’s Pro Bowl players will be honored next year with a celebration in Los Angeles, the NFL said.
“I think this is something that we talked to our players about, the Pro Bowl players in particular,” Goodell said. “We had conference calls the last couple years: ‘What’s working? What’s not? What would you like to see?’ And the number one thing that came out… is: ‘We want to be honored and celebrated as a Pro Bowl player.’… It just opened my eyes. I never really thought about it in the context of that. It’s not honoring the replacement players. It’s honoring the guys who are selected by the fans, by the players, by the coaches.”
