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The NFL is making a significant change ahead of the Super Bowl in California. On Tuesday, the NFL announced they were moving the “Pro Bowl games” to Super Bowl week, starting with this year’s Super Bowl being played in the Bay Area.
The NFL has announced that the event, known officially as the “Pro Bowl Games” in the years since the elimination of the Pro Bowl game, will move to the Super Bowl host city.
The centerpiece will be a made-for-TV flag-football game at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, with the live audience consisting only of the players’ “families, friends, and select fans.”
ESPN will air the newly revamped Pro Bowl games on Tuesday, February 3, at 8:00 p.m.
The Pro Bowl will be in the San Francisco Bay Area on Tuesday night heading into Super Bowl week, EVP Peter O’Reilly tells us.
Prime time, February 3, with aim that fans traveling for Super Bowl festivities can join. Two new coaches to come, though Mannings will remain involved pic.twitter.com/nM1c0q4shj
— Jori Epstein (@JoriEpstein) October 22, 2025
“We are dedicated to making the Pro Bowl Games a prime-time television event that will enhance Super Bowl week,” ESPN president of content Burke Magnus said in a press release announcing the latest revisions to the event. “Our shared vision focuses on using a production approach that spotlights the world’s best players in a manner unique to the Pro Bowl Games format, while highlighting flag football and its emergence on the global sports landscape.”
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell spoke about the decision to move the Pro Bowl Games to Super Bowl week.
“We’ve spent a lot of time evolving our Pro Bowl, talking about how to make our Pro Bowl more attractive, both for our players participating but also our fans,” Goodell said. “We spent a great deal of time talking about the objectives, and the objectives really are to celebrate and honor our incredible players, and second is to use our game as a global platform.”
The NFL appears to be positioning flag football as the centerpiece of the games in hopes that the sport catches on.
“Flag has become a global game,” Goodell said. “Our players have embraced playing that in the all-star format, and we think it’s really important to continue that initiative.”