These players want to leave NFL to play Flag Football at LA28
Reports have emerged saying that the NFL have agreed for their players to play at the Los Angeles Olympics.
The NFL is, according to ESPN, poised to approve a resolution permitting its players to participate in flag football at the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. This decision, anticipated to pass at the league’s meeting in Minneapolis, requires at least 24 of the 32 team owners’ approval.
Subsequently, the NFL will engage in negotiations with the NFL Players Association, Olympic officials, and national governing bodies to finalize participation details.
Flag football, a non-contact, fast-paced variant of traditional American football, will debut as an Olympic sport in 2028. The NFL has actively promoted the sport’s global growth, integrating it into events like the Pro Bowl Games and supporting youth programs worldwide.
‘I would absolutely love it’
Several NFL stars, including Minnesota Vikings running back Aaron Jones, has come out in support of the idea: “Flag football players may be upset at me for this, but yes, I would absolutely love it,” Jones said. “Every other sport gets an opportunity to win a gold medal, and if you’re not serving your country in the military, I feel like that’s the other highest honor that you can represent your country in.”
New England Patriots receiver Stefon Diggs told ESPN that flag football is “a perfect opportunity to get everybody playing one sport, representing America as a whole, and hopefully get a gold medal.”
Per the ESPN report, the flag football resolution outlines rules and a general framework for how the NFL envisions the process unfolding, pending negotiations with the NFLPA and Olympic-related organizations. These include:
• Permission for any player under NFL contract to participate in tryouts
• A limit of one player per NFL team on each national team participating
• Allowing, in addition, a team’s designated international player to play for his home country
• A purchase of leaguewide insurance policies to provide injury protection for any player injured while participating in an authorized flag football activity related to the Olympics
• A salary cap credit for any player who is injured
• An expectation that Olympic flag football teams will establish medical staffs and field surfaces that comply with NFL minimum standards
• A schedule that “does not unreasonably conflict with an NFL player’s league and club commitments.”
ESPN sources: A vote to allow NFL players to participate in flag football for the first time during the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles is expected to pass at today’s league meeting in Minneapolis. Nothing is official yet, but as one source said about today’s vote, “Olympics… pic.twitter.com/SiV8ut3IyZ
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) May 20, 2025
A concern from the NFL and its teams is potentially the fact that the Los Angeles Summer Olympics are set to go ahead between July 14 and July 30, 2028; that timeframe mostly falls during the NFL offseason, so at most, meaning flag football players might miss the beginning of training camp.
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