With NFL stars in mix, Olympic flag football trials process could be ‘mouth-watering’
ANFL stars who are serious about making the U.S. flag football team when the sport makes its Olympic debut at the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles will get their chance. But they will have to undergo what could be an unprecedented testing process, according to those responsible for building the roster.
USA Football’s Scott Hallenbeck and Eric Mayes told the Guardian in a recent interview that they are as excited as anyone to field NFL talent for the Olympics, as the NBA has done for the US since the 1992 Dream Team.
Still, they stressed that there are still some challenges for those aspiring to pursue Olympic gold by making the transition from 11-on-11 tackle football to five-on-five, no contact and no linemen. format played on a much smaller field. Importantly, the next Summer Olympics coincide with the start of the 2028 NFL training camp schedule — and the two sports are as different as boxing and mixed martial arts.
“You can’t help but salivate at the athleticism that… [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 are more likely to make the transition than others.
The comments from Mayes and Hallenbeck, the CEO of USA Football, come as big-name NFL quarterbacks such as Patrick Mahomes, Caleb Williams, Joe Burrow and Jalen Hurts have expressed interest — in various forms — in pitching for the American team in L.A., as has Tyreek Hill, the NFL’s reigning leader in receiving yards.
That has led many fans to assume that such players have the inside line on Olympic team positions. The comments were also notable enough that NFL executive vice president Jeff Miller recently acknowledged that the league and the players’ union have already begun discussions about how Mahomes and his ilk could potentially make it to the Olympics.
Hallenbeck, Mayes and their organization are also important voices in that conversation. And while the details were still being worked out, they said the public can expect tryouts instead of automatic invitations — not only because it’s required by the U.S. Olympic movement, but also because the U.S. men’s national flag football team is already a powerhouse in its discipline.
The U.S. men have won five of Flag’s last six world championships, including the last four. They won a gold medal at the 2022 World Games in Birmingham, Alabama — and then won the Americas Continental Championship in Charlotte, North Carolina, in 2023.
They will defend their title as the best in the world at the World Championships in Lahti, Finlandagainst 31 teams from six continents in a four-day tournament starting on Tuesday.
Whether casual observers can understand it or not, those who have experienced it, the Team USA path and have contributed to its performance and have tools that allow them to compete for their spot even against NFL pros.
They’re used to playing on a 50-by-25 yard field between the end zones for two 20-minute halves, instead of 100 by 53.3 yards for four 15-minute quarters, Hallenbeck and Mayes said. Laterals and double passes are second nature. Defenders are used to covering receivers without being able to block them at the line of scrimmage. They’re used to runners who prevent defenders from pulling their flags by dropping their hips low to the ground or literally walking like a duck, moves that in the NFL can result in the maiming of anyone who attempts them.
“One of the questions that’s been asked, and I think it’s more than fair and appropriate, is how much time do you need to try to teach the differences between standard tackle football and the Olympic sanctioned flag version,” Hallenbeck said. “We don’t have the answer to that yet.”
But USA Football hopes to find that answer through “public” trials involving combine-style testing, drills and simulated games at a time when NFL, UFL, college tackle players and even track and field stars could participate if the athletes – and their teams – so choose, Hallenbeck and Mayes said. Those could happen as early as 2025, with the goal of identifying new prospects who could qualify for the next continental and world championships.
Hallenbeck and Mayes acknowledged having seen the tasty suggestion from some to pit the current Team USA against a collection of NFL stars in a televised match to vie for supremacy in the discipline. And the pair — whose organization receives funding from the NFL’s charitable arm — did not rule out the possibility of staging such a match as they try to narrow down a gold medal roster with just 10 spots available.
Whatever form the testing takes and how many NFL overlapping players are included, those with versatile skills have the best chance of making the team, Mayes and Hallenbeck said.
The two were clear about how highly they think of their starting quarterback Darrell “Housh” Doucette, who irritated some in NFL circles when he recently said it was “disrespectful” for spectators to assume he would surrender his spot on Team USA without a fight, including Mahomes.
USA Football’s respect for Doucette comes from the fact that he doesn’t just sit back and throw. He’s a quick, agile runner. He completes throws off the off foot. He plays center — where he snaps the ball before going out to receiver — and is effective on defense, rushing the opposition.
“He has … the understanding of the version of the game to use his athleticism and just be a threat to an opponent no matter where he’s at,” said Mayes, a former tackle football player at Trinity International University and a rules analyst for the NCAA. “So with a limited roster like this, that’s what we have to prioritize.
“It’s going to be tough no matter where athletes come from, if… you have a quarterback that’s just a quarterback… or a DB [defensive back] who is only a DB due to a lack of space on the selection list.”
Count Chad “Ochocinco” Johnsonthe retired NFL star wideout, as one of those who sees the wisdom of Mayes and Hallenbeck counting on Doucette. During a recent appearance on Shannon Sharpe’s Nightcap podcast, Johnson told the host that he shared the flag field with Doucette.
Doucette’s performance led Johnson to believe that “flag football at that … elite level that he plays at is different,” he told Sharpe, a three-time Super Bowl champion. “You take the best NFL players you want, and … you play Doucette’s team, I guarantee they’ll beat NFL players — with the nuances, the tricks you can use to manipulate the game.”
That’s not to say it wouldn’t be impossible for the NFL’s generational talents to learn those tricks. And as Hallenbeck mused about how “incredible” it would be for football fans to watch Doucette and his teammates fight for their Olympic dreams against the NFL’s best, he offered three names.
It was three-time Super Bowl champion Mahomes, fellow two-time NFL Most Valuable Player Lamar Jackson and Caleb Williams, who won the 2022 Heisman Trophy as the best college football player at the University of Southern California. Neither throws from behind their blockers. All are explosive runners who can master complicated offensive schemes.
Hallenbeck, a former member of the U.S. Olympic Committee, cautioned against interpreting his comments as anything more than a hypothesis. But even such hypotheticals could provide hints about how NFL and flag football fans could be in for “potentially the best trial programs in the history of trial programs,” he said.