From Most Valuable Player awards to Super Bowl titles, Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes has won every major honor available to an NFL player.
Is an Olympic gold medal next?
The possibility that Mahomes, or any other NFL player, could earn a medal at the 2028 Olympics moved closer to reality Tuesday when NFL owners voted to allow players to participate in flag football, which will make its Olympic debut in Los Angeles with six men's teams and six women's teams and 10 players per team.
Getting the approval of owners was a critical yet early step. Actually getting NFL players onto the field will still require more details to be ironed out among the league, the players' union, USA Football — the organization that acts as flag football's national governing body — and the International Olympic Committee. As voted on Tuesday when owners met in Minnesota, each national team would be permitted to select one player per NFL roster. In addition, each team's "designated international player" would also be allowed to participate for his or her country; the latter would help populate rosters from outside the United States.
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said in a statement that including flag football in the Olympics "has sparked a tremendous amount of excitement among NFL players interested in the chance to compete for their country on the world stage. We are thrilled that they will now have that chance."
The proposal also said national teams would need to meet minimum standards for field surfaces and medical staffing. It also included caveats to protect teams should one of their players get injured during Olympic-related training or competition, such as salary cap credits.
Players would need to try out or qualify for their national teams.
"Players have expressed to us a great desire for the honor of competing in the Olympics," Lloyd Howell Jr., the executive director of the NFL Players Association, said in a statement. Howell added that the union would work with Olympic organizers and governing bodies "to ensure players who compete will do so with protections to their health, safety and job."
The team that takes the field in 2028 won't be the first to represent the United States in international competition. Since 2014, the U.S. men have won the last five International Federation of American Football world championships. That experience gives the United States "a talent pool that already features prominent flag football stars who have helped USA Football establish a gold-medal standard in international competition," Scott Hallenbeck, USA Football's chief executive and executive director, said in a statement.
"Including players from the NFL only strengthens our ability to build the best U.S. Men's National Football Team possible and achieve our ultimate goal for LA28: to bring home two gold medals in flag football."
Well before the Olympic vote took place Tuesday, a handful of high-profile NFL players indicated their interest in taking part, including Mahomes, who said in 2023 that "if I can still move around then, I'm going to try to get out there and throw the football around maybe in L.A."
Minnesota Vikings receiver Justin Jefferson was at a self-described “loss for words” after the approval, saying the potential to earn a gold medal for the United States was a “dream.”
Flag football isn't a novel concept for the NFL, which introduced the format into its annual Pro Bowl Games exhibition in 2023 and has thrust its resources and support behind creating flag football leagues for men, women and kids across the country.
