Flag Football Classic: Team USA rolls through NFL competition in Olympic-style round-robin tournament

Saturday’s Fanatics Flag Football Classic tournament at BMO Stadium in Los Angeles posed an intriguing question. Could a team of current and former NFL players defeat a USA aquad familiar with flag football, one that’s won the last five flag football world championships and figures to make up most of an Olympic roster for the 2028 Summer Games? To put it succinctly, no.

Despite facing legends like Tom Brady, Rob Gronkowski and Luke Kuechly, along with Pro Bowl talent including Joe Burrow, Saquon Barkley and Jayden Daniels, Team USA showed how valuable experience with the rules and strategy of flag football is in winning three games to win the championship of the round-robin tournament. [ Draft your Yahoo Fantasy Baseball team for the 2026 MLB Season ] As USA flag football star Darrell “Housh” Doucette was heard saying on a live mic — and has said in the past when the possibility of NFL players trying out for an Olympic team was first suggested — “those guys don’t know this game like we do. ” The results backed him up.

Here is how the four games of the Flag Football Classic played out, with Team USA showing who rules the sport. Rules to know… 50-yard field 15-minute running clock (until the final minute of the half) Play clock is 25 seconds QB has seven seconds to get rid of the ball Each team starts at the 5-yard line You get four downs to get past midfield (25-yard line). If you do that, you get four more downs to try and score a TD There are two PAT options: You can go for a 1-point conversion from the 5-yard line or for a 2-point conversion from the 10-yard line Oh, and the football is a smaller size than the one you see on Sundays Game 1: Team USA 39, Wildcats FFC 14 Wildcats FFC featured Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow and Washington Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels, both Heisman Trophy winners at LSU.

In flag, playing with two quarterbacks is customary, as players are allowed unlimited laterals and backward passes to teammates, who can then throw a forward pass. Burrow and Daniels quickly tried their hand at that strategy. It didn’t work.