The National Football League finally cried uncle on the Pro Bowl, and, of all things, the petrified remains of LIV Golf quickly came to mind.Just more evidence that no matter how much money and power are behind it, you cannot sell a meaningless, watered-down product to consumers even as insatiable as sports fans. The mighty NFL proved over the years it can sell just about anything to just about anyone, except the Pro Bowl, which should have been eulogized a long time ago.Tom Brady is the only NFL player ever named to 15 Pro Bowls, yet he last participated in one after the 2004 season. He was too busy winning the Super Bowl, nursing his battered body, or, as the ultimate competitor, doing anything preferable to engaging in a contest that made a mockery of what true competition is all about.It’s stunning the Pro Bowl actually survived for more than 70 years in a sport defined by violence, the long-term toll taken on players’ bodies and brains, and this unassailable fact:You can play worthwhile football at only one speed — full.After the NFC and AFC Pro Bowlers combined to score 100 points in the January 2012 game, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell went on the radio with Michael Strahan and acknowledged the exhibition was an embarrassment, it is “really tough to force competition,” and if the level of Pro Bowl effort did not improve, “I am inclined not to play it.”Wednesday’s move was Goodell’s good riddance, at last.5 Amazing Facts for the 2026 Pro Football Hall of Fame ClassMike SandoYes, the Old Schoolers used to block and tackle in the Pro Bowl as if everything was on the line and, yes, there was nothing fake about Sean Taylor’s famous 2007 pancaking of punter Brian Moorman … other than the fake punt. And in the dead of winter, it used to be pretty cool to absorb those televised scenes from Hawaii and to see Bill Belichick huddling with his strange AFC bedfellow, Peyton Manning.But whatever redeeming qualities remained were sacrificed when the Pro Bowl became the Pro Bowl Games, and when the main event became a flag football contest that ultimately included a sixth alternate at quarterback.Shedeur Sanders, God bless him, does not deserve to be the enduring name and face of this decision — a series of bailouts forced a desperate NFL to invite a struggling rookie quarterback to sling it around during the silliest of silly season events.This alternate universe of alternates had to go, NFL executive VP of football operations Troy Vincent Sr. told The Athletic’s Jonathan Jones, because the most recent version of the Pro Bowl “is not the product the fans deserve nor the way the players want to be celebrated.”The NFL did not become America’s singular sports superpower by getting in the quitting business, so it was a bit jarring to see the league walk away from on-field tradition and settle for an annual awards show in Los Angeles. And make no mistake: This is a surrender, a rare defeat for a sport that long ago surpassed Major League Baseball as the national pastime.By the low-contact nature of its game, MLB always had a major advantage over the NFL. Consider one of the more memorable All-Star Games of all, Pedro Martinez’s historic dominance of the National League in his home park, Fenway, in 1999.Martinez was still angry the American League All-Star manager the year before, Mike Hargrove, had picked the New York Yankees’ David Wells over him to start that game. Martinez channeled that rage in striking out the first four National League batters and five of the six hitters he faced in the middle of the steroids era — three Hall of Famers, Barry Larkin, Larry Walker and Jeff Bagwell, along with musclemen Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire.It’s still one of the most thrilling baseball performances I’ve seen in person.“When Pedro’s on,” AL manager Joe Torre said that night, “he’s going to stop everybody.”And that’s the point. Martinez had every reason to be “on” in the Midsummer Classic, because All-Star baseball can be played at full speed without creating an alarming occupational hazard for players expecting to lead their teams on playoff runs in the second half.You can throw 100 miles per hour in July as an All-Star pitcher, and you can swing for the moon as an All-Star slugger. Nobody can guarantee an injury-free experience — no old-timer will forget Pete Rose’s obliterating catcher Ray Fosse at the plate in the 12th inning of the 1970 ASG — but the risk-reward ratio is acceptable.It’s not within three country miles of acceptable in football after a long regular season and postseason of punishment and pain.The NFL tried to change what the Pro Bowl looked like, adding in children’s games, but it didn’t land with the audience. (Julio Aguilar / Getty Images)MLB’s is the only All-Star Game in any sport that I’ve watched with any regularity. The only NBA All-Star Games I ever cared about were in 1992 — Magic Johnson’s return from HIV-forced retirement — and 1998 — advertised as Michael Jordan’s final appearance (he returned for two more years later with the Washington Wizards) and as Kobe Bryant’s teenage debut.It was a wild night of MJ-Kobe duels in Madison Square Garden, and the freewheeling latter’s getting iced out in the fourth quarter by his own coach, George Karl. Derek Jeter and his best friend at the time, Alex Rodriguez, sat together in the stands, with all of New York fawning over the Yankees shortstop and ignoring A-Rod, then of the Seattle Mariners. As I walked with Jeter through the Garden concourse, a high-profile NFL Draft prospect approaching from the rear threw his right hand in front of me and said, “Derek, I’m Peyton Manning. You’re having some career.”I recalled all those details about that night, other than the only one that matters in sports — which team won the game. (Eastern Conference, 135-114, I confirmed via Basketball Reference.)Therein lies the problem with All-Star games, especially those not conducted on a baseball field. You win some, you lose some, and nobody remembers or cares because it is half-speed entertainment with half-ass stakes.The NFL probably figured it could outlast this problem because, well, the NFL outlasts everything.Everything except the brand and the shield’s being dishonored.