We might as well start scouting the best flag football options for LA 2028.
If you haven’t heard the news by now, NFL players will be allowed to compete in the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. Tackle football may not ever reach the Olympics in our lifetimes, but there will be men’s and women’s flag football medals up for grabs just a little over three years from now.
At the moment, the LA Olympics will be from July 14-30, so that would overlap training camp. We’re not going to have the entire NFL go on an Olympic break for flag football, especially since the standard for the competition is 5-on-5 and 10 players per team (with a 12-player roster).
Here’s a little background on this resolution and the planned negotiations with the NFLPA for playing in the Olympics:
• Permission for any player under NFL contract to participate in tryouts
• A limit of one player per NFL team on each national team participating
• Allowing, in addition, a team’s designated international player to play for his home country
• A purchase of leaguewide insurance policies to provide injury protection for any player injured while participating in an authorized flag football activity related to the Olympics
• A salary cap credit for any player who is injured
• An expectation that Olympic flag football teams will establish medical staffs and field surfaces that comply with NFL minimum standards
• A schedule that “does not unreasonably conflict with an NFL player’s league and club commitments.”
The key line there is “one player per NFL team on each national team participating.” My interpretation is that, for instance, the Seattle Seahawks can have one player on Team USA and one player on Team Australia (Michael Dickson as their running back) but not multiple players on the same national team. There will only be six teams for both the men and women, so a maximum of 72 NFL players can be selected for the Olympics.
The positions for five-on-five flag football consist of the quarterback, running back, wide receiver, and a center on offense, while the defense has rushers, corners, and safeties.
With that in mind, which Seattle Seahawks would you most like to see go for gold in Los Angeles? Jaxon Smith-Njigba already gave us a taste of his Pro Bowl flag football skills and we can safely rule him out for quarterback. Devon Witherspoon likes to hit people so I’m not sure if flag football is for him. Quarterbacks aren’t allowed to run past the line of scrimmage in this iteration of flag football so Jalen Milroe as a runner is not an option. He can still be dangerous scrambling in the backfield, so that could still be fun.
Kenneth Walker III in flag football could be extremely entertaining with his elusiveness. I just hope he can stay healthy this season, let alone 2028. JSN’s route running could make for some epic ankle breakers against, I don’t know, Team Austria.
Can Tommy DeVito play for Team Italy? Let’s see him try and challenge Julian Love down the field—it can’t be that far down since it’s only a 70-yard field (with 10 yards for each end zone).
This is all in good fun so let’s not entertain the fears of a flag football injury that knocks a player out of training camp or longer. Share your thoughts in the comments!
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