NFL to replace Pro Bowl with Flag Football

The National Football League (NFL) announced Monday that starting this season it will replace the traditional Pro Bowl, in which the best players of the NFL will now face each other in a flag football game.

“We’ve received invaluable feedback from players, teams and fans on the reinvention of the Pro Bowl, and as a result we’re thrilled to announce The Pro Bowl Games as a platform to highlight Flag Football as part of the future of the sport,” the league said.

With the implementation of the Pro Bowl Games, the NFL also reinforces its intention that flag football be included in the Olympic program for LA28.

The league, along with the International Federation of American Football (IFAF) announced the second team of Global Flag Football Ambassadors to amplify and support the long-term growth of the game worldwide.

“The NFL is committed to placing critical assets such as technology, broadcast, commercials and sports science at the service of the Olympic movement to include our goal of Flag Football,” NFL Vice President Troy Vincent said at the time.

Flag football is a reduced format of American football with five players per team, in which to “tackle” the opponent one of the flags or ribbons that they carry on both sides of the hip must be removed without using physical contact.

Flag is a fast-paced, non-contact, creative and highly skilled format that benefits from being easily accessible and inclusive making it the perfect vehicle to attract new players, including women, to accelerate growth and promote the message of football for all.

“Flag football continues to give many people, who otherwise would not have a chance to play the game, an opportunity to play competitively,” said Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts. “As an advocate for women’s sports, I admire how the platform is inclusive, giving talented and skilled women and girls across the world a way to get active on the field.

Momentum is growing behind the sport following its debut at The World Games in Birmingham, Alabama earlier this year with the IFAF preparing to launch the biggest-ever cycle of elite international flag competition, including full continental representation for the first time in 2023.

Currently played by men, women, boys, and girls of all ages in more than 100 countries around the world, flag football is poised for even greater expansion as the cornerstone of the NFL’s domestic and international participation and development strategies.

“This is not something that we dominate because it’s football, the national pastime in America,” says Vincent. “You watch these young ladies and men play in other countries. They come to play. It’s a transitional sport. It’s a cross-functional sport. The best flag players come from soccer, lacrosse, cricket because these are men and women who have tremendous agility. It’s a fast-paced game played in space. You don’t have to play it for years and years. You can develop. You can transfer those skills that you learned in soccer, lacrosse, cricket to flag football.”

For the 2022-23 Pro Bowl the NFL and the IFAF have announced the second team of Global Flag Football Ambassadors - Jalen Hurts, Amon-Ra St. Brown and Eli Manning are among the latest to join an all-star team who will work together to further raise the profile and promote the unique values of one of the world’s fastest growing sports.