The NFL is replacing the Pro Bowl with weeklong skills competitions and a flag football game, the league announced Monday.

The 2023 Games will be held in Las Vegas, and the flag football game at Allegiant Stadium is Feb.

The league partnered with the International Federation of American Football to bring flag football to The World Games in July with an eye on the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.

"You tap into all the stuff that feels great about Pro Bowl week, the skills, the helmets off, the engagement and then culminate that, keeping the AFC-NFC construct, in something that's really important, which is flag football and that opportunity to have the best athletes in the NFL out there playing this game that is so much about the future of our sport," said O'Reilly, the league's executive vice president, club business and league events.

Youth football has been extremely important to me, and knowing NFL FLAG will help grow this sport, I hope boys and girls can see themselves playing the same game as the best players in the world.".

In 1999, Patriots rookie running back Robert Edwards suffered knee ligament damage and sliced an artery in his left leg playing an NFL-sanctioned beach flag football game during the week of the Pro Bowl.