NFL players can try out for Olympic flag football, owners vote
NFL owners approved a resolution Wednesday allowing players to try out for flag football teams in the 2028 Olympics. The owners' vote came at the spring league meeting in Minneapolis.
Only one player on each NFL roster can try out for a given country's Olympic team. That means multiple players on the same team could compete as long as they represent different countries. Since players added via the International Player Pathway program don't count towards a roster spot, they'll also be allowed to try out.
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Six countries will be represented for men's and women's flag football at the 2028 Summer Games. The International Federation of American Football, which is the international governing body of contact and flag football, will determine which nations participate. The games will be played in a five-on-five format.
The NFL's resolution to allow its players to participate in flag football at the 2028 Olympics has passed, per source.
Who makes your dream team? pic.twitter.com/ZkjiLWLsYE
— Dianna Russini (@DMRussini) May 20, 2025
Scott Hallenbeck, USA Football's CEO and executive director, told The Athletic last week that USA Football has been in 'regular communication' with the league about NFL players potentially being eligible to participate in the Olympics.
'We stand ready to provide opportunities for NFL players to be part of Team USA and compete alongside established flag football stars and talent-transfer athletes from other sports,' Hallenbeck said in a statement. 'We will field the best team possible in pursuit of our ultimate goal of earning two gold medals for the United States in flag football.'
The NFL has taken steps to preserve the health and safety of any players who participate in the Olympics. For an Olympic flag football team to be eligible to roster an NFL player, the team will be required to implement 'certain minimum standards' for medical staff and field surfaces.' The NFL and the NFLPA will have future discussions about what those standards will be.
'We fully support our player members participating in the Olympics and taking this opportunity to represent their country on the highest international stage,' an NFLPA spokesperson wrote in a statement to The Athletic last week. 'We look forward to discussing NFL player participation further with the league to ensure players who choose to compete can do so without detrimental impacts to their health, safety and job.'
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Although flag football is a contactless sport, there's still a chance that players could suffer significant injuries. NFL teams will have some protections in the scenario that players suffer injuries while participating in activities related to an Olympic flag football team. They'll be provided with injury protection and salary cap credit through the placement of one or more league-wide insurance policies.
From a scheduling standpoint, Olympic flag football teams will have to make sure their practices, games and other events don't conflict with players' commitments to their respective teams. The 2028 Olympics will take place from July 14 to July 30, 2028, in Los Angeles. NFL training camps typically begin in late July.
Despite potential concerns about injuries and scheduling conflicts, the league office sold owners on the hope that NFL participation in Olympic flag football could lead to the growth of the sport both domestically and internationally.
Flag football is played in over 100 countries. From 2014 to 2023, the number of children who played flag football in America increased by 38 percent to over 1.6 million, according to USA Football. During that same time frame, the number of girls participating in flag football increased by 44 percent to upwards of 230,800. The NFL is optimistic that growth will lead to more men and women who go on to play and work in football later in life.
The league started NFL Flag 50, a campaign pushing for girls' flag football to become a sanctioned varsity high school sport in all 50 states. It's currently sanctioned in 15 states, but that number is expected to grow in the years to come.
Flag football has become a collegiate sport at the NAIA and NJCAA levels, and the NCAA Division I, II and III levels. Earlier this month, the sport got a recommendation to join the NCAA Emerging Sports for Women program, which would allow schools in all three NCAA divisions to make a deeper commitment to the sport and one day potentially submit it for consideration for championship status. The NFL has explored creating professional men's and women's flag football leagues, which would give those college athletes another way of continuing their careers.
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If the NFL can use flag football as a vehicle to increase the popularity of football globally, that means more money in the pockets of team owners. Ultimately, that made giving NFL players a green light to participate in the Olympics a risk they viewed as worth taking.
(Photo of flag football at 2024 NFL Pro Bowl Games: Megan Briggs / Getty Images)
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