Flag football is coming to the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, and barring any disastrous reversal, the participants will be all or mostly all NFL players. The league approved allowing players to join Team USA and any other qualifying country they are eligible for last week.
But the sport didn't just appear overnight, and it certainly didn't gain popularity just because the NFL uses it as an attempted ratings boost to replace the Pro Bowl game. There was a lot of work put into convincing the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and the true ambassadors were those who put blood, sweat and tears into becoming the best at it.
Now, professional flag football players look like they won't get their opportunity to shine in the spotlight.
"The flag guys deserve their opportunity," Darrell "Housh" Doucette, quarterback for the U.S. National Flag Football Team told the Washington Post. "That's all we want. We felt like we worked hard to get the sport to where it's at, and then the NFL guys spoke about it, it was like we were getting kicked to the side."
The U.S. has won six world championships in flag football, including five straight (2014, 2016, 2018, 2021, 2024). Doucette led both the 2021 and 2024 squads to winning the gold medal and his career, at 35 years old, is on the decline. So the 2028 Olympics could be his final opportunity at global glory.
NFL could cast aside flag football pioneers by sending its players to 2028 Olympics
Flag football seems to be in position to be hijacked by the NFL for a publicity stunt so that it can expose its brand to the rest of the world on the biggest stage.
NFL players, while talented, are not as good at flag football as they're being made out to be. Anybody who has watched the Pro Bowl Games knows this. That being said, a lot of us have probably not watched professional flag football either. But that's the point.
"This is a sport that we've played for a long time, and we feel like we are the best at it and we don't need the other [NFL] guys," Doucette said. "If those guys come in and ball out and they're better than us, hats off to them. Go win that gold medal for our country."
Just like few watch professional swimming or professional skateboarding, the athletes who are featured on the Olympic stage get to showcase their talents and draw more eyeballs to their sport amid the post-Olympic fervor.
But with the NFL getting it's money-grubbing paws all over flag football, it'll only be familiar faces gracing our television screens. That means no real exposure for the sport and just more eyes being sent to the NFL regular season a few weeks after the Games wrap up.
There's still a lot of time left before any official Olympic preparations can begin, but let the conversation start now. Professional flag footballers can't be forgotten for how far they've gotten the sport. The NFL can't just punch its stamp on it and claim it as its own.