The NFL can do no wrong when it comes to television numbers.
They throw a random game on Thursday between two low-level teams? Huge ratings.
How about lengthening the NFL Draft? Every day has record highs.
Let’s put the NFL Scouting Combine on television. People are starved for football and will watch a Division II nose tackle run as fast as he can to move up from the 6th round to the 5th.
A Wednesday morning game in a country by throwing a dart blindly? Millions of viewers.
The NFL has one kryptonite, though, when it comes to all its commercial and broadcast success.
The Pro Bowl.
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As we approach Sunday’s Super Bowl LX between the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks, which will likely soar above 100 million viewers in North America alone, the newly titled “Pro Bowl Games” landed on its face this past Tuesday.
The “game,” which has turned into a flag football exhibition in a convention hall, drew only 1.9 million viewers, a record low for the event.
Once a game held after the Super Bowl in Hawaii, the game was shifted due to players not taking it seriously enough and a dip in ratings. The NFL has tried to incorporate the Super Bowl into its schedule and make it more appealing to players, but it’s only gotten worse over time.
Top players are declining, and for the stars who do show up, they’re surrounded in a lifeless hall with a few hundred fans watching as they casually play flag football to the enjoyment of almost no one.
When they first began playing flag football instead of actual pads and helmets, the Pro Bowl drew 6.2 million.
Now, though? They’ve lost over half the audience and have somehow made an event during the biggest week of football each year feel like a useless accessory.
Hawaii didn’t work. Flag football in big stadiums didn’t work.
Now, flag football in tiny fields with casual spectators is working even less.
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