2028 Olympics flag football selection procedures are coming later this year

Saturday’s inaugural Fanatics Flag Football Classic opened plenty of eyes regarding the fundamental differences between tackle football and flag football. And it raises interesting questions about how USA Football will determine the players on the U.S. men’s national flag football team for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.

Scott Hallenbeck, the CEO and executive director of USA Football, has provided some information as to the pending task of narrowing the various interested players to a final roster that will seek, and likely win, gold medals.

“For the Olympics in 2028, the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC) must approve our process,” Hallenbeck said via email to PFT. “USA Football is currently building the selection procedures for 2028 — a process that would involve select NFL players as well as the best of the elite flag players, like what all saw on display in Los Angeles on Saturday. Additionally, we will be seeking to identify and invite athletes from other sports — what is referred to in the Olympic movement as ‘talent transfer.’ For example, we’ve seen several athletes from basketball and track and field be successful in that transition.

“Within this process, we’re working with the NFL to determine how best to incorporate active NFL players — how they qualify for selection, ultimately how they’re selected and so forth. You may have seen some mention of ‘acclimation camps’ previously and essentially, we’re working to develop opportunities throughout 2027 for NFL players to have the chance to immerse themselves in the flag discipline, so they better understand the strategy, rules, nuance and skillset required for international flag football.”

As Saturday’s event showed, acclimation of NFL players will be critical. Beyond selecting players with the ideal body type and skill sets (nickel corners, receivers, scatbacks, mobile quarterbacks), they’ll need to be ready to compete within the confines of the unique rules of flag football.

“Overall, our selection process would likely include a combination of NFL players, flag specialists, and talent transfer athletes,” Hallenbeck said. “Of note, we anticipate sharing shortly an interest form with active NFL players that provides some information on the acclimation camp process, the LA28 training camp and competition dates, etc. to get a better understanding of which NFL players would like to commit to going through our process to be considered for LA28.”

That’s an important step. It’s one thing to be interested in showing up for the Olympics. It’s quite another to commit to the full and complete process for making the team and preparing for the competition.

For now, USA Football must first devise the selection procedures. Hallenbeck said that USA Football currently anticipates that the process will be “approved and announced by Q4 of 2026.”

While there’s still plenty of time to figure it out, the clock is ticking. And the overriding question is whether the team will eventually be hand picked or whether the candidates will need to devote some of their down time in the offseason to participating in the various pre-Olympics camps in an effort to win a spot on the team — and whether any of those events will conflict with offseason workouts.

Last year, the NFL approved allowing one player per team to participate in the Olympics. Team USA may have up to 10. Other players could qualify for the other teams in the tournament, based on the usual rules that allow participation on behalf of a given country.

Regardless, the supply of willing NFL players will likely outweigh the available slots. And with only one player per NFL team permitted, someone will have to determine which player on a given franchise gets the assignment, if multiple players want it.