Sometimes in the NFL, things don’t always make sense and instead take a twist or two that no one saw coming.
This happens to be the case for the upcoming NFL Pro Bowl Games and the selection of two quarterbacks in recent days: current Cleveland Browns QB Shedeur Sanders, and former veteran Joe Flacco. The games will be played on Tuesday, February 3, out in San Francisco in an indoor convention center called the Moscone Center. The contest is now a flag football game played between the stars of the league.
For Cleveland fans, seeing both these quarterbacks get added to the Pro Bowl rosters has certainly brought back memories of an unusual quarterback competition this past summer. Going into last season’s training camp, the Browns had four quarterbacks competing for the starting job in Week 1, with rookie Dillon Gabriel and journeyman Kenny Pickett in that mix. The crowded quarterback room certainly caught the attention of Browns fans and both local and national media outlets, for that matter.
In the end, Flacco won the starting role and took the reins through Week 4 of last season. The 18-year vet who won a Super Bowl when he played for the Baltimore Ravens was viewed by Cleveland as a bridge quarterback to the young rookie QBs, Sanders and Gabriel.
After Week 4, Flacco was benched and replaced with Gabriel. However, the rookie passer got injured in a Week 10 game, and Sanders finished out the season, starting the last seven games. After Flacco got benched by the Browns earlier this season, he was traded to the Cincinnati Bengals, where he started several more games for them in place of the injured Joe Burrow.
Statistically, neither Sanders nor Flacco had good seasons. Sanders threw for 1,400 yards, had seven touchdowns, but also had 10 interceptions. Flacco threw for over 2,400 yards, had 15 touchdowns and 10 interceptions in 10 games. Thus, when the recent announcement was made that these two players had made the Pro Bowl rosters, it only added to the mockery of the annual event.
Unfortunately, the NFL was left with very few options at the quarterback spot for the upcoming game. There have been numerous injuries to other high-profile quarterbacks like Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen. In addition to two other quarterbacks playing in the upcoming Super Bowl, Sam Darnold and Drake Maye, the league went with the unexpected quarterbacks in Sanders and Flacco.
NFL names Shedeur Sanders and Joe Flacco to Pro Bowl in a surreal Browns moment
The Pro Bowl was a traditionally played football game that started in the 1950s and was played in Los Angeles through the 1960s. The annual game moved later to Hawaii in 1980 and stayed there until 2016. It moved back to Orlando and Las Vegas in the years that followed. Since 2023, it’s become a flag football competition between the AFC and NFC conference players. It’s the NFL’s way of protecting players and making it more fun for everyone involved.
The upcoming game will now be played at the Moscone Center, a convention center in downtown San Francisco. Approximately 2,000 fans will be able to watch the game in person, a far cry from a football stadium filled with people.
It’s a change for the NFL with this new venue type, but they want to showcase the uniqueness of flag football, and away from playing the game in a traditional football stadium. The NFL is hoping to spark more interest in flag football, especially with the league investing more time and money into girls' flag football across the country, from high school teams to a professional women's league.
As for Flacco and Sanders playing in this game despite not having good seasons, it is what the NFL has come to. Sanders has already become a very polarizing figure in the league. His NFL jersey sales are some of the best in the league. So, the league will benefit from his participation in the Pro Bowl.
Surprisingly, Flacco had never been invited to a Pro Bowl in his 18-year career despite winning a Super Bowl back in 2013 with the Ravens. He did compete against the likes of Peyton Manning and Tom Brady during a good chunk of his playing career so he was overlooked at times for the honor of being named a Pro Bowl player.
For the Browns' former teammates, being named a Pro Bowl player was probably the last thing on either of their minds at the start of training camp last summer. The NFL can work, however, in mysterious ways, and the Browns team can say now that they (hilariously) had two Pro Bowl quarterbacks on their roster in 2025.