NFL Takes First Step Toward Sending Players To Compete On Olympic Flag Football Teams

The NFL is almost definitely headed to the 2028 Olympics to compete in flag football.

Players have voiced their interest in participating when it becomes a medal sport at the Los Angeles Olympics in '28, and next week, club owners and others will discuss the matter at a league meeting in Minneapolis.

Team USA Should Be Stacked

Under discussion will be a resolution to establish rules governing NFL player participation in the Olympics three years from now. The resolution will also be used to address possible player injury during that competition.

But at the heart of the matter is the fact that current NFL players will almost definitely be allowed to compete.

The league will discuss permitting players "under contract" to try out for a team participating in that Olympiad. 

That suggests Team USA's five-man lineup is going to be stacked.

Imagine, if you will, a club with Justin Jefferson, Tyreek Hill, Lamar Jackson, Patrick Mahomes, Saquon Barkley, CeeDee Lamb and others.

Gold medal, baby!

Michael Irvin dives for a pass  during an alumni air it out flag football game February 10 before  the 2006 Pro Bowl in Honolulu.  (Photo by Al Messerschmidt/Getty Images)

NFL Must Work Out Details

But the resolution currently doesn't specify whether the NFL would only allow players to join the American team. It reads "a flag football team participating in the 2028 Olympics."

So the supposition is that NFL players with some ties to other countries might compete for those countries.

The resolution as currently written would limit NFL player participation to no more than one athlete from each team. NFL EVP Jeff Miller said that means an NFL club can send one player to a number of Olympic teams, but no Olympic team could have more than one player from any one NFL team.

This is an early stage document which is a first step.

It calls for setting proper injury protection, and salary cap credits for any injury suffered during the competition through the purchase of league-wide insurance policies.

And it calls for Olympic flag football teams to "implement certain minimum standards for medical staff and field surfaces" for NFL players to use.

Assuming this resolution or an edited version passes, the NFL sees minimal schedule conflicts with the 2028 Olympics. Those Games run from July 14-30 and NFL training camps would open around the date the Games conclude.

TORONTO, ON- OCTOBER 28  -  A pass is broken up in the end zone. The CFL-NFL are hosting a flag football regional tournament featuring co-ed teams of 10-11 year olds. Each CFL market is hosting a regional tournament with the winners going to Ottawa for a flag football tournament during Grey Cup Week. The winner in Ottawa will represent Canada at the NFL Pro Bowl Flag Tournament in Orlando. at Birchmount Stadium in Toronto. October 28, 2017.        (Steve Russell/Toronto Star via Getty Images)

Bring Home The Gold, NFL 

Now, we get it. This isn't for everyone.

Some fans will be disinterested because flag football isn't real football in their eyes. Or they'll watch and cringe at the possibility some dude from Romania inadvertently crashes into their NFL team's star player.

All that is fair.

But so is this: the Olympics are a competition. The goal is to win the most dang medals, preferably with many of those being gold.

If the Olympics are adding a sport Americans invented and the NFL is offering up the best players in the world to compete, we probably have a very good shot of adding another medal for Team USA.

That's winning.