Tom Brady, Joe Burrow and more faced U.S.'s elite flag football players. What did it teach us about NFL’s chances at Olympic gold?
With one minute left in the first half of the Fanatics Flag Football Classic championship, Team USA quarterback Pablo Smith dropped back and hit wide receiver Velton Brown Jr. in the left flat. Brown stutter-stepped then zigged across the field to his right, hips swiveling elusively along the way.
Pro Football Hall of Fame Luke Kuechly and three-time All-Pro NFL wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins grabbed for Brown’s flags but missed as Brown instead slithered between them with a bend so deep he’d have qualified for the limbo championships. Brown regained his balance well enough to advance toward the end zone until, 2 yards out, three-time All-Pro NFL defensive back Jalen Ramsey pulled Brown’s flag. Team USA would need another possession to finish its go-ahead scoring drive.
View this post on Instagram The U. S. men’s national flag team would still win this tournament championship just as it won the last five flag football world championships.
But moments like Brown’s acrobatics proved as eye-catching because of the athletes’ limberness and body control as it is for the context it finally gives a growing NFL conversation: How viable are NFL players for the 2028 U. S. Olympic flag football team?
Draft your Yahoo Fantasy Baseball team for the 2026 MLB Season The NFL helped advocate for the inclusion of flag football (known colloquially as “flag”) in the Olympics, where it will debut for the 2028 Games in Los Angeles. And the NFL passed a resolution last year that allows a limited number of league players to compete in the Olympics, continuing the NFL belief that flag is the ideal way to expand football globally in an accessible way . But as last weekend’s classic showed — by accident, actually — the brand of football headed for the Olympic stage varies drastically from the brand dominating TVs across America each Sunday in the fall.
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