Any NFL stars who are truly serious about joining the US’s national flag football team when the sport debuts as an Olympic discipline at the 2028 Los Angeles Summer Games will get their opportunity – but they will need to submit to what could shape up to be a trials process like no other, according to those in charge of picking the squad.
Scott Hallenbeck and Eric Mayes of flag’s American governing body, USA Football, told the Guardian in a recent interview that they are as excited as anybody to explore fielding NFL talent at the Olympics in a manner the NBA has done for the US since the 1992 Dream Team.
Yet they made it a point to say there are some challenges awaiting those who aspire to chase Olympic gold by transitioning from 11-on-11 tackle football to the five-on-five, no-contact and no-linemen format played on a much smaller field. Importantly, the next summer Olympics are going to collide with the beginning of the 2028 NFL season’s training camp schedule – and the two sports are as different as boxing and mixed martial arts.
“You can’t help but salivate with the athleticism that could … be in the [player] pool,” said Mayes, USA Football’s managing director of high performance and national teams. But “it’s not a one-to-one transition” between flag and tackle, and certain types of players stand a better chance of making the switch than others.
The remarks from Mayes and Hallenbeck, USA Football’s chief executive officer, come as big-name NFL quarterbacks like Patrick Mahomes, Caleb Williams, Joe Burrow and Jalen Hurts have expressed interest – in various forms – of throwing for the American squad in LA. So has Tyreek Hill, the NFL’s reigning receiving yards leader.
That has led many fans to assume that such players have the inside line on Olympic team spots. The comments also have been notable enough that Jeff Miller, the NFL executive vice-president, recently acknowledged that the league and the players’ union have already started discussions on how to potentially get Mahomes and his ilk into the Olympics.
Hallenbeck, Mayes and their organization are also important voices in that conversation. And while specifics were still being ironed out, they said the public can expect tryouts rather than automatic invitations – not only because it is required by the US Olympic movement, but also because the men’s American national flag football team is already a powerhouse in its discipline.
The US men have won five of flag’s last six world championships, including the last four. They won a gold medal at the World Games in Birmingham, Alabama, in 2022 – then captured the Americas Continental championship in Charlotte, North Carolina, in 2023.
They’re due to defend their title as the globe’s best at the world championships in Lahti, Finland, against 31 teams from six continents at a four-day tournament beginning on Tuesday.
Whether or not casual observers can grasp it, those who have undergone the Team USA path and contributed to its achievements do have tools with which to fight for their spots even against NFL pros.
They are used to playing on a field that is 50-by-25 yards between the end zones for two 20-minute halves – rather than 100-by-53.3 yards for four 15-minute quarters – Hallenbeck and Mayes said. Laterals and double passes are second nature. Defenders are already familiar with covering receivers without being able to jam them at the line of scrimmage. They are accustomed to runners who avoid defenders pulling their flags by dropping their hips low to the ground or literally walking like a duck, moves that in the NFL could result in the maiming of anyone attempting them.
“One of the questions that’s been raised, which I think is more than fair and appropriate, is how much time do you need to try to teach” the differences between standard tackle football and the Olympics-approved flag version, Hallenbeck said. “We don’t have the answer to that just yet.”
But USA Football hopes to potentially find that answer at “public-facing” trials featuring combine-style testing, drills as well as simulated games during times when NFL, UFL, college tackle players and even track stars could participate if the athletes – and their teams – want, Hallenbeck and Mayes said. Those could begin occurring as early as 2025, with the goal of identifying new prospects to be considered for the next continental and world championships.
Hallenbeck and Mayes acknowledged having seen the mouth-watering suggestion made by some to pit the current Team USA against a collection of NFL stars in a televised game to battle for supremacy in the discipline. And the pair – whose organization receives funding from the NFL’s charitable arm – conspicuously did not rule out the possibility of hosting such a contest as they try to craft together a gold medal-caliber roster with only 10 spots available.
Whatever forms the trials take and however much NFL crossover they may draw, those with versatile skill sets are going to have the best shot at making the team, Mayes and Hallenbeck said.
The two were clear about how highly they think of their starting quarterback Darrell “Housh” Doucette, who rankled some in NFL circles when he recently said that it was “disrespectful” for spectators to assume he would lie down without a fight and surrender his spot on Team USA to anyone, including Mahomes.
USA Football’s respect for Doucette stems from the fact that he doesn’t simply sit back and throw. He is a fast and shifty runner. He completes throws from his off foot. He plays center – where he snaps the ball before going out as a receiver – and is effective on defense at rushing the opposing passer.
“He has … the understanding of the version of the game to take his athletic skills and just be a threat to an opposing team wherever he lines up,” said Mayes, a former tackle football player at Trinity International University and rules analyst for the NCAA. “So with a limited roster such as this, that’s what we have to prioritize.
“It’s going to be difficult, regardless of where athletes come from, if … you have a quarterback that’s just a quarterback … or a DB [defensive back] who is just a DB because of a lack of roster space.”
Count Chad “Ochocinco” Johnson, the retired NFL star wideout, as one of those who see the wisdom in Mayes and Hallenbeck counting on Doucette. During a recent appearance on Shannon Sharpe’s Nightcap podcast, Johnson told the host that he had shared the flag gridiron with Doucette.
Doucette’s performance made Johnson believe “flag football at that … elite level he plays at is different”, he said to Sharpe, a three-time Super Bowl champion. “You take the best NFL players that you want, and … you play against Doucette’s squad, I guarantee you they beat the NFL players – with the nuances, the tricks you can do to manipulate the game.”
That isn’t to say it would be impossible for the NFL’s generational talents to learn those tricks. And as Hallenbeck mused over how “incredible” it could be for football fans to watch Doucette and his teammates fight for their Olympic dreams against the NFL’s best, he offered three names.
They were three-time Super Bowl champion Mahomes, his fellow two-time NFL most valuable player Lamar Jackson, and Caleb Williams, who won the 2022 Heisman Trophy as college football’s best at the Univeristy of Southern California. None just throw from behind their blockers. All are explosive runners who have mastered intricate offensive schemes.
Hallenbeck, a former US Olympic committee member, admonished against interpreting his remarks as more than hypothesizing. But that he can even offer such a hypothetical hints at how NFL and flag football fans could be in store for “possibly the greatest trials programs in the history of trials programs,” he said.
