Robert Griffin III named to USA men's national flag football team
The American national flag football team has traditionally been made up of players who never played tackle football at a high level. Now there's an exception: Robert Griffin III. Griffin, the 2011 Heisman Trophy winner and 2012 NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year, was named today to the Team USA Football men's flag national team.
The 36-year-old Griffin was among 24 players named to the team today. Those players will attend a training camp before 12 are chosen to travel to the International Federation of American Football Flag Football World Championship in Dusseldorf, Germany, in August. NFL players found out the hard way that flag football is a lot different than tackle football when two teams with active NFL players on them got blown out by Team USA at the Fanatics Flag Football Classic.
With flag football coming to the Olympics in 2028, several NFL players have said they want to play, but they're going to need a lot of practice to get good enough at flag football to beat the players who have been playing it for years. Griffin, who hasn't played in the NFL since 2020, may have the time to commit to learning the skills and techniques of flag football, and that may give him a better chance than active NFL players who won't make that kind of time commitment. But even Griffin would seem to be a long shot, as flag football is a different sport, and a sport that the tackle players struggled to play at a high level when given the opportunity.