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Every year, it seems as though the NFL has new rules of points of emphasis, such as altering the kickoff and reviewing penalties. However, perhaps nothing about the NFL has changed more than the Pro Bowl. It was already the only league that held its version of the All-Star game after the season, and there is plenty more that has evolved since its origin, so we’ve shared a bit of the history for you here.
At the most basic level, the NFL Pro Bowl is the league’s All-Star game, just like the NBA, MLB, NHL and other sports. Those are named as such, and in the beginning, so was the NFL Pro Bowl. It was indeed known as the All-Star game for the first four years of the league, but the format was quite interesting.
It was a game between the champion of the NFL that season and the actual All-Star team. Of the five games, the All-Stars won just once.
You may notice an eight-year gap between our breakdown of the history of the NFL Pro Bowl, and that was thanks to World War II. However, 1950 marks when the term Pro Bowl came into effect.
This era featured the Pro Bowl in Los Angeles, and that location even overlapped into the next era. The major change was the matchup switching from the All-Stars against the current league champion to two All-Star teams, one from each conference. The history of the NFL Pro Bowl during this nearly 20-year period was so consistent that there are hardly any other notable changes.
As mentioned, the LA location carried over into the next era, and the Pro Bowl swapped to the iconic Aloha Stadium in Hawai’i from 1980 to 2009. This was a new historical era of the NFL Pro Bowl, given the transition from East vs. West to AFC vs. NFC.
The latter portion of this era is also where the NFL began feeling pressure from fans and media alike for the effort and quality of play that the Pro Bowl was putting on. All-Star games are primarily meaningless across all sports, but given the physical nature of football, we got to a point where it was two-hand touch football at best.
Players weren’t incentivized to risk their bodies, so following the 2012 game, the history of the NFL Pro Bowl started getting interesting.
Following that controversial 2012 game, commissioner Roger Goodell and the NFL decided to switch things up and go from the AFC vs. NFC format to a fantasy draft with two captains – alumni and current players.
Amid this short period, the NFL also made it so that the 2015 Pro Bowl was the week before the Super Bowl rather than the week after. However, this was also the last year of the short-lived fantasy format.
This is where the history of the NFL Pro Bowl brings us back to the AFC vs. NFC format. During this time, the NFL considered international venues to bring more excitement back to the Pro Bowl, but that would not come to fruition. However, what would be implemented is the Pro Bowl Skills Showdown.
This included a variety of skills competitions, the most notable being the dodgeball game between the two teams. After canceling the 2021 Pro Bowl, the venue changed to Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas beginning in 2022.
Overall, fans seemed to enjoy the skills competitions, as they allowed the players to compete in other ways outside of the game itself, where they were hesitant to do so due to the risk of injury. The NFL double-downed on this idea with what they labeled as the Pro Bowl Games.
This was a series of skills competitions that each awarded points to the winning side, either AFC or NFC, culminating with a flag football game. So, the past two NFL Pro Bowls were flag football games captained by brothers Peyton and Eli Manning. Both games were won by the NFC, but the AFC won the series overall in both years.
Mark has been a lifelong fan of all sports, and five years ago turned it into a profession, specializing in the NFL, NHL and MLB. He is a diehard Baltimore Ravens fan and has had his work published in sites such as Sports Illustrated, Pickswise and other top outlets.