Photo courtesy of the Jacksonville Jaguars.
In our final article on Pro Bowl 2025, we will discuss the flag football game and remaining skills competitions on Sunday. Other than the Jacksonville Jaguars mascot, who was still recovering from Thursday, and one of the Manning brothers, fun was had by all. You can catch the articles on Thursday’s events here and here. Let’s get into it!
Pre-Game Interviews
Before anything can happen in the Pro Bowl, everyone needs to be interviewed. The flag football game is no different. We have Scott Van Pelt, soup model Jason Kelce, and that one generic white guy that is in everything but we always forget his name (Orlovsky) on the 1s and 2s. They were hilarious throughout the games and should commentate as a unit more often.
Marcus Spears was doing sideline interviews with the AFC conference coach. Peyton said, “In Joe We Trust,” and claims Burrow will play the entire game. Manning says Maye will understand because he is a rookie, and Russ doesn’t even get a mention because the NFL hates him. You won’t make up those seven points with that attitude, Peyton.
After trash-talking Burrow and Chase as a duo for a second, Eli says he anticipates a lot of trick plays from his older brother but feels confident and like his team is prepared to go and steal the show. Ryan Clark gets more out the younger Manning who said that this is the 3-peat everyone in the NFL is worried about, and we can’t agree more. Preparations have been much easier once they could put down the trivia cards.
Pro Bowl Flag Football Quarter 1
First Possessions
NFC gets the ball first because winners get results. Goff was on fire during the skills competition on Thursday, so Eli put him out first. Kyle Juszczyk got the first catch, followed by a run play by Gibbs. The first player to be flagged is Justin Jefferson, who attempts the TD but gets his equipment pulled first by Patrick Surtain. Kyle ended up completing the first TD. One extra bonus point was attempted but was failed after there was some rather aggressive tackling of Gibbs as he tried to get it in. Derwin James, relax, it’s flag football.
AFC is up next and is attempting to get their footing and turn this thing around. Burrow is, of course, up first, and if Peyton had his way, the only one to go to bat. The first throw goes to Bowers, followed by Nico Collins, who went out of bounds. Burrow ran the ball to the 5-yard line himself. At this point we see at least one rule in practice—you can’t rush the ball in; you must stop at the 5-yard line and throw it in. No brotherly shoves are pushed around here. Finally, Chase got the catch. He followed his win by knocking over oversized pins and a bowling ball in victory.
One amusing thing was the quarterbacks thorough use of their play cards. They were staring at those plays like their lives depended on it, and they had the memory of a goldfish. A short memory is a possibility because Burrow attempted to run in the extra one-point attempt, which was very clearly not allowed two plays ago. A five-yard penalty backs the Bengal back. The now 2-point attempt was also thwarted by the de-flagger KaVontae Turpin.
Second Possessions
Now that the gents are slightly warmed up, Goff and company are in their zone. He completed a pass to McBride, who made it down the field, but we didn’t get to see it because the three musketeers got chatty. Next, Goff makes an incomplete pass to Nabers. A flag is called, but no penalty was committed allegedly, and on we go. Goff made another pass to ball hog Nabers, who is de-flagged by Stingley Jr. Another throw to Nabers sealed the deal on the TD, and he celebrated by somersaulting into the tug-of-war foam pit. A one-bonus-point attempt to McBride is successful.
At this point the three musketeers inform us that according to flag football rules, your feet can’t leave the ground. However, the NFL players can because refs. A lot of these rules make sense, especially within the context of children playing. Rushing in at the 5-yard line could lead to injury, for example. Brotherly shoves are hard on the center.
The AFC is back at it and Burrow is up. He throws one of the most alarming passes this season as Jared Verse tips it and Fred Warner nearly intercepts it. Mixon somehow catches the ball and appears to be de-flagged by Warner. Jonnu Smith catches the next pass and is deflagged by a zealous Xavier McKinney. Mixon gets the ball and makes it to the five-yard line eventually.
At that point we are brought to the sideline where we have two AFC players playing euchre. The fun little interview once again distracted us from the next play. Brian Branch intercepted the final play of the quarter and did the foam pit celebration with most of the NFC. We are finishing the first quarter with a score of 27-13, with NFC in the lead.
Pro Bowl – Punt Perfect
This skills competition is for the kickers. A punter and another non-kicking position conference-mate attempt to kick the ball into what looks like tubes or cans or something. They get to punt a maximum of 12 balls in one minute. Whichever runs out first ends the round. A picture is above for reference.
Rutledge is out there interviewing people in another…. ensemble. Michelle Beisner-Buck is a breath of fresh air as she interviews the coaches in what proves to be one of the hardest skills competitions of the year. She also keeps Peyton Manning in line when he’s hovering too much, which is truly a blessing.
Round Uno
For the AFC, we have Marlon Humphrey, who is definitely not a kicker. The punting specialist Logan Cooke is repping for the Jaguars. On the NFC side, we have Kyle J., the fullback, and Jack Fox, who I swear I didn’t see all season.
In our first go-around, Humphrey gets a solid six points. Some of the tubes are worth more points than the others, so that doesn’t mean six balls are in automatically, although it could. Kyle also gets six points. The punters state how difficult this game is from the start, and that is never clearer than when they take their turn.
Cooke gets seven points, leaving his team with a total of 13 points. He is forever rimming the ball. Fox is also a rimmer and gets seven points as well, making their total 13 points too. At this time we acknowledge Eli Manning’s quarter zip sweatshirt on what is a very warm day in Florida. If you’ve lived in the South for more than a few years, you understand.
OT
Tension is high. Each player gets 30 seconds to kick in as many balls as they can in the tube-cans. Anticipation and dread seem to overtake Peyton as he dramatically falls to the ground. Unsurprisingly, both of these kickers I don’t know only get 3 points each. Another round is in order.
Sudden Death
Things get a little nuts at this point. Each kicker attempts to do his job, and if he misses one of the can-tubes the other kicker gives it a shot. The round is over once the ball goes into its destination.
Peyton is on the sideline pacing; teammates attempted to cheer for their kicker before they actually won. It was a rim, not a goal, gents. Justin Jefferson is streaming from the sidelines, hoping for another reason to get into the foam pit.
Cooke gets the first kick, and he rims it. Fox is up, and his ball lands in a different zip code. Fox got his turn again next, and he missed it. Cooke misses it going just past the can-tubes, which his teammates thought was a hole in one. It wasn’t, and so Cooke goes again and finally gets it in. Fox rims it again. This whole game has us wondering, are these our Pro Bowlers? But I digress.
Humphrey said he prepared by watching a lot of tape the night before. Considering he almost made the same number of points as the punter, we believe him. And we thought Eli was the only coach making his players practice random skills for weeks ahead of the games. After that interview, we get a glimpse of the dog frisbee-throwing competition, which should have been a part of the skills section. Allegedly, Jason Kelce has a real knack for picking the winner before the puppies play. It’s in the dog’s spirit.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Pro Bowl 2025 is a lot to capture in words. When you notice every bird fart and beads of sweat on foreheads, coverage can take a minute. In this article, we covered the first quarter of flag football and the kickers performing the skills competition “punt perfect.” Perfect was a stretch of the imagination. Will Peyton be equally as unhinged in the second quarter or during the next skills competition? Most likely. Especially if the AFC actually wins any more. We finish off the first with a score of 27-16 in the NFC’s favor. Get more of our Pro Bowl content here.
