The Pro Bowl is no more. Rest in Peace, Pro Bowl. Long live the Pro Bowl.

Wednesday evening, at approximately 5:34 p.m., league owners pulled the Pro Bowl off life support, with the All-Star game killed by not just a lack of interest but a lack of value over at least the past decade.

"It's OK to be the first league to walk away from a competitive all-star game," NFL executive vice president Peter O'Reilly said, according to ESPN.

O’Reilly is right.

I remember writing a term paper of sorts back in high school, about All-Star Games having long outlived their usefulness and that for the sake of their dignity they should be put out of their misery.

As it turns out, seeing Shedeur Sanders and Joe Flacco on the rosters of a couple of All-Star Teams playing flag football in the hallway of a convention center last winter was just about all the NFL needed to see before finally heeding my advice, from something like 2004.

"You come off the championship games and the viewers see the physicality of the game and you try to replicate that," NFL Executive Vice President of Football Operations said. "Frankly, it just doesn't sit well. This isn't a good representation."

Vincent is right.

It isn’t, and it hasn’t been a good representation of the product or the best players that America’s most popular sport has to offer.

If we’re being honest, the Pro Bowl lost so much of its luster even before the final version of the game was played in Hawaii back in 2016. At least then, players had a cool family vacation to build the experience around.

The Pro Bowl in Hawaii used to be an event, and a total spectacle to watch as a kid, not just because of the cool scene of every player wearing their own team’s helmet but because of the skills competition featuring tug of war, and until Robert Edwards mangled his knee, beach football, were peak 90s kid viewing.

In recent years, though, once the game moved to Orlando and then began rotating, the Pro Bowl stopped being appointment viewing. More players opted out, and for good reason, because there is no good reason to risk significant injury in an exhibition game.

And, so, the NFL finally, and mercifully, pulled the plug.

With the exception of the Major League Baseball All-Star Game, which remains a milemarker in time, an event celebrating the rich history and timelessness of the sport, All-Star Games and their accompanying skills competitions have become lost in an endless sea of streaming options or movies or reels for our attention.

Kudos to the NFL for realizing that the Pro Bowl no longer served any real value and calling it quits on trying to extract any more from it.

Now, let’s get to your questions; on the preseason being on life support, what it will take for Justin Jefferson to return to form, how teams are now balancing their spending and their roster priorities, and so much more!

Let’s get after it!

In a lot of ways, Anthony Richardson’s Colts career, and perhaps his NFL career at large, is going to go down as one of the great draft tragedies of this era.

The Colts, tantalized and tempted by Richardson’s athleticism, chose him No. 4 overall in the 2023 NFL Draft.

Richardson went on to appear in just 17 games, passing for 2,400 yards with 11 touchdowns to 13 interceptions, 10 rushing scores, a concussion, an AC joint sprain, back soreness, shoulder soreness, and a whole lot of questions about his commitment.

“He’s probably both,” a longtime quarterbacks coach told Between The Hashmarks, when I posed your question to him. “How do you draft a guy with like 13 college starts? I mean, come on.”

This summer, after the Colts’ commitment to Daniel Jones, Richardson’s acrimonious tenure in Indianapolis will likely come to an end, be it by a trade or as one of the Colts’ roster cuts.

Perhaps Richardson will benefit from a change of scenery, after this situation devolved into not just a benching but a bitter back-and-forth between head coach Shane Steichen and Richardson’s agent, both questioning the trust of the other.

Whatever the means to this end for everyone involved, Richardson seems to be thrilled just to be healthy enough to be on the field again this summer.

"Just getting back out there after sitting down for a while with the eye injury, going to see a lot of different doctors, getting back in the groove of practice, putting pads back on, just being back out there on the field and just doing it," Richardson recently told reporters. "I definitely needed that."

There’s also the however unlikely scenario where Steichen and general manager Chris Ballard view the upside Richardson’s athleticism still offers as an asset, and keep him as Jones’ backup.

"I'm just looking forward to helping the team," Richardson said, via ESPN. "They truly believe that I still have a chance to be on this squad, and I love that.

"I just want to be able to contribute."

Those contributions will likely be limited if he stays with the Colts, but there may be a well-worn path in Mayfield’s and Sam Darnold’s footsteps for Richardson. After all, there isn’t a head coach or general manager who has ever met a former first-round pick, let alone a top-five selection they don’t believe they can rehabilitate or maximize in their system and their program.

Perhaps, given Tua Tagovailoa’s ongoing concussion concerns and Michael Penix’s suddenly growing injury history, the Falcons might take a flier on dropping Richardson into head coach Kevin Stefanski’s quarterback whispering chamber.

Maybe, Matt LaFleur and the Packers would view Richardson as the next Malik Willis, after disjointed play from Kyle McCord behind Jordan Love and veteran Tyrod Taylor. After all, Green Bay has never passed up the chance to strengthen its developmental pipeline.

However, Richardson’s brief flash in the sun doesn’t necessarily signal a Darnold or Mayfield revival in the making.

“He needs to throw more accurately,” an offensive coordinator tells Between The Hashmarks, on the condition of anonymity to speak freely about a player on another team.

There seems to be a far better chance that Richardson joins Leaf and JaMarcus Russell among the great quarterback cautionary tales of their generations than there is of a triumphant second chapter still to be written.