Last May, NFL owners cleared the path for players to compete in Olympic flag football. But after Team USA’s dominant 106-44 thrashing of NFL stars at the Fanatics Flag Football Classic on Saturday, the more pressing question has emerged: does Team USA actually need or want them?
The results from BMO Stadium were emphatic. Darrell “Housh” Doucette III and the U.S. men’s national team went 3-0 against rosters loaded with Pro Bowlers and Super Bowl champions. They scored on 14 of 15 possessions and made Joe Burrow, Jayden Daniels, Saquon Barkley, and Tom Brady look like they were playing a completely different sport.
That’s because, in many ways, they were.
The Rules Are Clear, but the Reality Is Complicated
Yes, NFL players can compete. The league’s unanimous vote at the Spring League Meeting in May 2025 settled that. Under the resolution, each NFL team may send one player to Olympic tryouts, with international pathway players also eligible to represent their home countries. The NFLPA signed off, and the framework exists: there are injury protection provisions, salary cap credit if someone gets hurt, and scheduling provisions to accommodate NFL commitments.
But USA Football, not the NFL, will select the 10-man roster. Commissioner Roger Goodell has made that distinction clear. And after Saturday, USA Football has leverage most governing bodies would envy: the current team just proved, on national television, that they might be the best option anyway.
“Those guys that we competed against, they didn’t know what they were getting themselves into,” Doucette said after winning tournament MVP. “We gained a lot of respect from those guys.”
Doucette previously stated that NFL players shouldn’t assume that they’d earn a roster spot on Team USA.
“I think it’s disrespectful that they just automatically assume that they’re able to just join the Olympic team because of the person that they are,” Doucette told The Guardian in Aug. 2024. “They didn’t help grow this game to get to the Olympics.”
Around the same time, Doucette also argued that he may be a better flag-football QB than Patrick Mahomes: “I’m not saying I’m a better player overall but until he steps on a 5v5 flag field, I’m going to feel that way until it’s proven otherwise! I’m a competitor and need to be proven wrong.”
At the time, Doucette’s comments prompted a ton of criticism and jokes, but his quotes have aged very well.
Back in 1992, NBA players were granted permission to compete in the Olympics and the Dream Team was formed. Team USA featured a loaded roster that included Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Karl Malone, and Charles Barkley, and the Americans steamrolled international competition at the Barcelona Olympics.
While NFL executives have tried to compare this to the Dream Team, that analogy misses a fundamental truth exposed on Saturday: NFL players who are new to flag football aren’t better than those who have been playing it at the highest level for years.
Flag football strips away the collision-based advantages that define NFL success. It’s a completely different game: 5-on-5 on a 50-by-25-yard field with unique rules (like the QB must get rid of the ball within seven seconds). Even the football itself is smaller.
What Saturday’s Results Mean for 2028 Roster Decisions
Burrow, who threw a pick-six in Team USA’s 39-14 round-robin victory, acknowledged the adjustment before stepping on the field.
“I’ve always wanted to play in the Olympics. I’ve never necessarily played an Olympic sport before. So, when this got announced, I was pretty excited about it,” Burrow said. “The opportunity to win a gold medal, that’s something that I’ve thought about for a long time, since I was a kid.”
Burrow is a generational quarterback at the NFL level. However, he spent Saturday learning that flag football is much, much different than what he’s used to playing.
The Wildcats’ 24-14 championship game loss was the closest contest of the day, and it came only after Kyle Shanahan implemented a clock-control strategy to limit Team USA’s possessions. Even with an NFL head coach scheming for them, the stars couldn’t stop Doucette and his teammates.
Brady, whose team went 0-2, offered a telling assessment: “There’s going to be a selection process, and may the best people play. Whoever gives the team the best opportunity to win, that’s who should be out there.”
That sounds like a concession. The flag football specialists have won five consecutive IFAF World Championships. They’ve built chemistry and studied the nuances of a 5-on-5 game that operates nothing like NFL football.
USA Basketball runs training camps to get NBA players up to speed on international rules. However, it’s one thing to help NBA players adjust to a shorter 3-point line and different goaltending rules, but it’s another to get NFL players up to speed on a game that’s entirely different from the one they know. Saturday proved that the gap between the two sports isn’t something a few walkthroughs can close.
Perhaps Team USA will opt to build a roster around Doucette and other flag-football veterans, then selectively add NFL athletes whose skill sets translate and who complement the rest of the roster (such as quick-twitch receivers).
It remains to be seen how USA Football will approach the 2028 Olympics, but its decision-making process just got a whole lot more interesting after Saturday’s games.
