For just about as long as anyone can remember, a sort of sovereign maximalism has served as the governing principle for the National Football League. Like Alexander the Great or one of those cartoon heavies whose oft-stated ambition is to assume control over the entirety of the known universe, Roger Goodell is a staunch expansionist—although that’s not to say that he’s averse to the occasional foray into the territory of addition-by-subtraction.
In the wake of a special owners’ meeting held in Atlanta, the NFL on Wednesday announced it has effectively closed the books on the Pro Bowl, making it the first major U.S. sports league to end its annual all-star game. A tradition stretching back to 1951, the Pro Bowl had been subject to multiple reinventions in recent years, mutating from a postseason scrimmage that more or less approximated “real” football to a grab bag of skills competitions culminating in a 7-on-7 flag football exhibition.
As much as the NFL is more of a putter-inner than a taker-outer, the decision to get rid of the ceremonial AFC vs. NFC game probably didn’t lead to anyone having to fish a popped monocle from the depths of his gazpacho. Traditions only matter if people are still observing them, and in the case of the Pro Bowl, the audience simply stopped showing up. According to Nielsen, ESPN’s coverage of the Feb. 3 game averaged a meager 1.92 million viewers, which marked an all-time low and a 59% decline compared to the year-ago telecast. Given that this year’s Hall of Fame Game between the Arizona Cardinals and Carolina Panthers drew just shy of 7 million viewers on NBC/Peacock a few weeks ago, it’s impossible to overstate how underwhelming the final Pro Bowl’s deliveries were.
