diff --git a/playbooks/pti-python-tarball/check.yaml b/playbooks/pti-python-tarball/check.yaml
index a5fc208dcf..49e7e00daa 100644
--- a/playbooks/pti-python-tarball/check.yaml
+++ b/playbooks/pti-python-tarball/check.yaml
@@ -1,6 +1,5 @@
 - hosts: all
   roles:
-    - check-python-release
     - build-python-release
     - ensure-twine
   post_tasks:
diff --git a/roles/check-python-release/README.rst b/roles/check-python-release/README.rst
deleted file mode 100644
index 09c05ee8f1..0000000000
--- a/roles/check-python-release/README.rst
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,16 +0,0 @@
-Test building sdist and wheel for Python projects and verify their
-metadata.
-
-** Role Variables **
-
-.. zuul:rolevar:: release_python
-   :default: python
-
-   The python interpreter to use. Set it to "python3" to use python 3,
-   for example.
-
-.. zuul:rolevar:: check_python_release_virtualenv
-   :default: {{ansible_user_dir}}/.venv
-
-   The location for the virtualenv used to install the tools needed to
-   check the packaging metadata for the project.
diff --git a/roles/check-python-release/defaults/main.yaml b/roles/check-python-release/defaults/main.yaml
deleted file mode 100644
index e78c49ebbb..0000000000
--- a/roles/check-python-release/defaults/main.yaml
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,3 +0,0 @@
-zuul_work_dir: "{{ zuul.project.src_dir }}"
-release_python: "python"
-check_python_release_virtualenv: "{{ ansible_user_dir }}/.venv"
diff --git a/roles/check-python-release/tasks/main.yaml b/roles/check-python-release/tasks/main.yaml
deleted file mode 100644
index ff33d3ee77..0000000000
--- a/roles/check-python-release/tasks/main.yaml
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,25 +0,0 @@
-- name: Install docutils for the README check
-  # NOTE(dhellmann): We install this unconstrained because we expect
-  # setuptools to expect the most recent version anyway. We use a
-  # virtualenv to avoid conflicts with system packages due to pip10
-  # and later.
-  pip:
-    name: docutils
-    virtualenv: "{{ check_python_release_virtualenv }}"
-    virtualenv_python: "{{ release_python }}"
-    chdir: "{{ zuul_work_dir }}"
-
-- name: Install Pygments for the README check
-  # Pygments needs to be installed to allow the metadata and README
-  # check parse project READMEs that have code blocks in the
-  # README.rst file.
-  pip:
-    name: Pygments
-    virtualenv: "{{ check_python_release_virtualenv }}"
-    virtualenv_python: "{{ release_python }}"
-    chdir: "{{ zuul_work_dir }}"
-
-- name: Check the package metadata and README format
-  command: "{{ check_python_release_virtualenv }}/bin/{{ release_python }} setup.py check --restructuredtext --strict"
-  args:
-    chdir: "{{ zuul_work_dir }}"