This year’s Pro Bowl was played at Allegiant Stadium, home of the Las Vegas Raiders on February 5. Each year since 1951, the National Football League has held the Pro Bowl, an all-star bowl game used to generate excitement around the time of the Super Bowl. From 1970-2009, the Pro Bowl was held the weekend after the Super Bowl, and has since been held the weekend before the Super Bowl in order to generate more suspense for the championship game of the NFL.

This year, the NFL decided to change things up from the normal tackle-football game between the best football players in the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC) to a flag football game. Because there are no real stakes in this all-star game, many of the players in the past would try to play as safe as they could to prevent unnecessary injuries. Less contact usually leads to less excitement in the game, however, which had a direct effect on the viewers of the game.

According to Sporting News, “Fewer people watched the 2022 Pro Bowl than the 2021 MLB All-Star Game, and the 6.69 million mark was down dramatically from the 12.2 million who watched the Pro Bowl just nine years earlier in 2013. The 2022 Pro Bowl ultimately had the smallest audience of any Pro Bowl since 2006.”

This year’s festivities were a chance to change that. Along with the flag football game on Sunday, throwing accuracy competitions between the best quarterbacks in the country and Kick Tac Toe, a kicking accuracy game between the best kickers and punters of the league were just two of the skills games held.

The most popular of them all, however, was the Epic Pro Bowl dodgeball tournament presented by Bud Light held on Thursday, February 2. The event highlighted all of the strengths each player on the field possesses, and many were shocked to see the amount of athleticism on display during a school children’s game. At one point in an early match, a three against match-up occurred, bringing  Vikings running back Dalvin Cook back to his elementary school days.

The Minnesota Vikings official website relayed Cook’s statements on the intense moment. He explained, “I felt like a kid again.”

The fun and games the players participated in during this all-star weekend in Vegas ended up being a great release from a hard season.

“It’s been fun,” Cook said. “It’s not the ultimate goal we all wanted, but you get to come here and sit back and reminisce on the season, just let loose and have fun. There was a lot of hard work put in this year, and we just came here to have fun and represent our teams. That’s what it’s all about.”