Beginning with the 2026 season, the league will name 88 Pro Bowlers but stop staging an AFC-NFC game, shifting the focus to player recognition and a Los Angeles celebration.

The NFL is ending the Pro Bowl game, closing the book on an all-star exhibition that had existed in some form since 1951.

Beginning with the 2026 season, the league will continue to select 88 Pro Bowlers through voting by players, coaches and fans. But it will no longer stage an AFC-versus-NFC game, including the flag-football format that replaced tackle football in 2023.

The selected players are to be announced in late December. The NFL plans to bring the 2027 Pro Bowl class to Los Angeles during the traditional Pro Bowl weekend for an in-person celebration with players and their families.

The new approach also eliminates replacement selections. In previous years, alternates could be added when original choices were injured, opted out or were preparing for the Super Bowl. NFL executive Peter O’Reilly described the change as a move from the game itself toward the value of the honor.

Flag football will remain part of the broader programming around the weekend, the league said, as it continues to promote the sport ahead of its Olympic debut at the 2028 Los Angeles Games. Those events will not serve as a new Pro Bowl game.

The decision follows years of changes to the event, which moved beyond its longtime home in Honolulu and struggled to sustain a conventional football showcase after the postseason.