NFL players have a better chance to play Olympic flag football than we realized

Flag football is being introduced to the Olympics in 2028 and football fans have been pretty excited about this.

The Pro Bowl has lost a lot of its competitiveness because of the risk of injury in a meaningless game. This takes away the entire excitement of putting the game's best players together at the same time, on the same team.

Bringing flag football to the Olympics gives us a chance to see our favorite, and most talented players, playing together, with real effort, because they're playing for their country. But not everybody is excited to see the NFL players represent the United States in the Olympics.

The quarterback of the US national flag football team, Darrell Doucette, recently spoke out against the NFL players, including the Philadelphia Eagles' Jalen Hurts, that feel like they're going to walk right into a spot on the Olympic team.

Bad news for you, Mr. Doucette. NFL players want to play in the Olympics and the league wants them there too.

NFL actively pushing to put stars in 2028 Olympic Games

According to Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk, the NFL is actively pushing for the 2028 Olympics to include some of their biggest stars.

“The amount of enthusiasm that we’ve seen among our players or more broadly for flag football in ’28 . . . has been remarkable,” NFL executive V.P. Jeff Miller told reporters including Florio during a conference call. “Conversations are continuing to go on with the [NFL] Players Association, with players themselves . . . but obviously the hope would be that players who want to participate in the Olympics and represent their country have that opportunity to do so. . . . It is something that we’re working on actively.”

The Olympics are about sending the best athletes in the world to go represent their country in an attempt to bring medals home for their home country. It's not about including everybody, as Doucette seems to think the case is.

If the NFL players, like Patrick Mahomes, CJ Stroud, Jalen Hurts, Tyreek Hill and many others want to play and the NFL is okay with that, there's no reason why they wouldn't be sent to compete in the Olympic Games.

It makes absolutely no sense to think that Doucette and the other national flag football players should be the ones selected to represent the United State. It's about going there to win for the country. If that is "disrespectful" like Doucette indicates it is, the tough reality is that he's just going to have to deal with it.

I can't imagine a world where the US sends a 5-foot 7 flag football player to play QB at the Olympics over Patrick Mahomes.