As expected, owners have paved the way for NFL players to take part in the 2028 Olympics. Several details are still to be worked out, with agreements including the NFLPA and International Olympic Committee (IOC) necessary for NFLers to suit up in Los Angeles. 
Plenty of time remains for that to take place, and a framework regarding playing surfaces, insurance against injury and adjustments to training camp schedules has already been voted on. Owners passed a resolution which would allow for one player per team per country to participate (with players classified as international roster exemptions also eligible). Six countries are slated to play in the event’s Olympic debut with 10-man rosters.
As preparations continue to take place, this is a good time to look back at the history of flag football at the international level. The 2028 Games will (presumably) be the first time active NFL players take part on a national scale, but they will carry on a trend of international competition in football (including the flag version) which dates back more than two decades.
IFAF – the International Federation of American Football, currently led by president Pierre Trochet – was founded in 1998. In the case of several countries, that development took place long after their own national federations were put in place (Canada’s, for instance, was more than one century old by that point). The first ever world championship for tackle football took place in 1999, and it is held every four years. Similarly, the world championship for the flag version of the sport began in 2002 – for both men and women – and it takes place every second year.
Austria won gold in each of the first two men’s world flag championships, winning the event again in 2012. France and Canada took home the prize in the intervening events. Team USA won the gold medal for the first time in 2010, and that feat has been repeated during each of the past five tournaments. In a similar fashion, the American women’s team has won each of the past three world championships after a total of five countries combined to win the first eight editions of the event.
As part of the ongoing development of flag football on a global level, IFAF received provisional status from the IOC in 2013 and recognized status 10 years later. The latter designation paved the way for flag football to be confirmed as an Olympic event, allowing for further growth on the world stage. The NFL played a leading role in that development, and the league has made a point to foster increased participation in flag football in recent years (with an NFL-sponsored league potentially on the horizon).
32 of IFAF’s 76 member countries qualified for the most recent men’s world flag championship, with six continents being represented for the first time. Continental championships serve as a qualifying path for the world championships, so it would come as no surprise if that were to also be the case in advance of the Olympics. A wide range of possibilities exist with respect to which countries will join the American hosts in Los Angeles.
Well dang! The history of flag football appears to be even more enthralling than that of pickleball. Is there a flag football HOF I could visit?
There actually is! It’s in Weenieville!!
Flag football will eventually want its own holiday: at least make the flags rainbow colored so we know what’s coming.
I don’t want to sound negative (spoiler-I probably will), but I wish that this would stop being conflated with gridiron football. The NFL has been greedily pushing it since its inception to draw in non-contact sport fans, but it’s just not at all the same beyond some aesthetic similarities. Letting professional NFL players compete in this event just furthers the facade that the NFL is trying to push; even if you enjoy watching flag football, I doubt that you’ll enjoy watching Tyreek Hill or Mark Andrews or George Pickens or whomever use their football acumen to demolish some determined but outclassed amateur in a non-contact setting.
Even if currently active or star level players don’t participate, the gap will probably still be huge. I have zero interest-less than zero, if the concept serves-in watching flag football myself, but if I did, I’d certainly be disappointed to see NFL practice squad players or retired free agents use their lifelong developed professional or collegiate skillsets to dominate international players that do this as a passion project. It just feels like the NFL is milking this to help advertise itself internationally, and the use of professionals in what is a niche sport in other countries just makes it worse. The actual NFL product is already hard enough to watch when it comes to penalties for contact; the move to promote flag football from the ultra corporate NFL just feels like it will continue to demote the physicality of the game.
If, by some miracle (from the NFL’s perspective-I couldn’t care less), flag football becomes an international sport, I don’t doubt at all that the NFL will take that as a cue to influence further their already aggressive minimization of tackling in our current product. If the league is so insistent on pushing this product, they need to make a clearer distinction between gridiron football and flag football-and they definitely need to keep the lifelong specialists that occupy even the lowest rungs of their depth charts out of it.
Flag football is as much like the NFL as curling is to the NHL…
Agreed…no disrespect meant, but they’re just not the same.
My idea would be to put Goodell and the greedy owners on the field and have a game of frag football.
Only six countries participating is wild – 50% of entrants will end up with a medal
It is as dumb as Break Dancing.
“ Several details are still to be worked out, with agreements including the NFLPA and International Olympic Committee (IOC) necessary for NFLers to suit up in Los Angeles.”
All you had to do was replace “necessary” with “between” to create a readable sentence.
Kinda sucks how bad current year writers/bloggers are, while I’m sidelined for my politics.
They can fluff it up as much as they want, rather watch NFL players playing real football. None of the other countries are going to be a threat against them either so who cares to watch.
This is about getting other countries excited about “football” and making tons of $$$$. That’s why there’s little participation. The NFL knows nobody cares about the pro bowl. Attendance rivals a WNBA game. Americans will care less about this. It’s lame and a money grab. And we can expect more of it with Goodell getting an extension. The game will continue to get softer and more appealing to women/moms.
How exactly is the game going to become more appealing to women when the NFL tolerates players who slap their girlfriends around, punch pregnant woman and wave their junk around while getting massages?
Taylor Swift and her cronies don’t seem to mind. The NFL does a good job of hiding what they don’t want exposed. Football fans know the deal, but not the casuals.
Even the advertising is heavily slanted towards a male audience with beer, automotive and hardware product ads. When was the last time you saw a commercial for a feminine hygiene or cosmetic product during a game?
I watch the games after they’re over on condensed version. 35 minutes a game, zero commercials, and limited commentary. It’s the only way to watch a game on tv nowadays. Unless you enjoy useless rambling and worthless advertising garbage. To each their own.
Kelce has like 2 more years at best, we already saw decline this year. They won’t be seen much, they also toned down the amount of times they showed her I think after Jason was heckled by the college kid. I think they know actual fans were annoyed and if Travis plays poorly no reason to show her unless she smashing other players.
I always try my best to discourage beautiful and talented female celebrities from latching onto me to further advance their success and fortune…and the plan seems to be working 🙂