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Stephen Holder
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Stephen Holder
ESPN
- Stephen joined ESPN in 2022, protecting the Indianapolis Colts and NFL at giant. Stephen completed first place in column writing within the 2015 Indiana Related Press Media Editors competitors, and he’s a earlier top-10 winner in explanatory journalism within the Related Press Sports activities Editors nationwide contest. He has chronicled the NFL since 2005, protecting the Tampa Bay Buccaneers from 2005-2013 and the Colts since 2013. He has beforehand labored for the Miami Herald, Tampa Bay Instances, Indianapolis Star and The Athletic.
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Kevin Seifert
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Kevin Seifert
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- Kevin Seifert is a employees author who covers the Minnesota Vikings and the NFL at ESPN. Kevin has lined the NFL for over 20 years, becoming a member of ESPN in 2008. He was beforehand a beat reporter for the Minneapolis Star Tribune and Washington Instances. He’s a graduate of the College of Virginia.
IF AND WHEN NFL gamers are permitted to characterize Workforce USA in flag soccer through the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, Minnesota Vikings operating again Aaron Jones want to convey a easy message:
Signal me up.
“Flag soccer gamers could also be upset at me for this, however sure, I might completely find it irresistible,” Jones stated. “Each different sport will get a possibility to win a gold medal, and when you’re not serving your nation within the army, I really feel like that is the opposite highest honor that you would be able to characterize your nation in.”
Jones and most of the key stakeholders wanted to make this a actuality have already made their positions clear on the thought of NFL gamers taking part within the Olympic debut of flag soccer.
“Man, that notion of with the ability to characterize your nation, whether or not you are going to characterize Workforce USA, Asia, Mexico — no matter — that is the final word dream,” NFL govt vice chairman of soccer operations Troy Vincent stated.
Amongst gamers, Jones is joined by many — together with Kansas Metropolis Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes and Miami Dolphins receiver Tyreek Hill — who’ve expressed curiosity.
“It is an ideal alternative to get all people taking part in one sport, representing America as an entire, and hopefully get a gold medal,” New England Patriots receiver Stefon Diggs instructed ESPN.
The prospect even has help amongst homeowners.
“That is thrilling and optimistic for the NFL,” Dallas Cowboys proprietor Jerry Jones stated. “I can see that and determine with that actual fast… I am a fan of what the Olympics can do for curiosity in your sport.”
With a lot frequent floor, it might sound as if NFL gamers suiting up within the Los Angeles Video games can be a slam dunk. In actuality, it should require the events to navigate many thorny points.
NFL homeowners convened in Minnesota on Tuesday and permitted a decision launched final Thursday that goals to make this a actuality. The decision wanted to be permitted by not less than 24 of the 32 group homeowners, but it surely was permitted unanimously.
After the voting end result was introduced, Minnesota Vikings All Professional receiver Justin Jefferson praised the chance for which he was strongly advocating. However Jefferson did not decide to attempting out for the 2028 Video games.
“That is the choice I am going to positively should weigh in somewhat bit,” Jefferson stated. “It is three years from now, it is three entire seasons that I will should undergo. In fact, getting older, physique goes to be totally different, however that is positively at all times been a dream. It is at all times been one thing I at all times wished to do, compete in your nation versus all the different nations in the remainder of the world.”
Lots of the last particulars stay a good distance off and are but to be negotiated between the NFL, the gamers’ union and Olympic governing our bodies. For now, the proposal requires the six taking part nations (which haven’t but been recognized) to pick out a most of 1 NFL participant every, with Workforce USA anticipated to be capped at 10 gamers.
“I feel total, [flag football in the Olympics is] a terrific factor,” Inexperienced Bay Packers basic supervisor Brian Gutenkunst stated. “I might find it irresistible if we stored the NFL gamers out of it.”
However the NFL is all-in on flag soccer, with the league having way back decided it’s a key to solidifying the following technology’s curiosity in soccer. The NFL is partnering with flag applications throughout the nation to help progress of the sport, together with the speedy progress of women flag soccer on the youth and highschool degree. The league can also be within the early levels of creating separate skilled flag leagues for women and men, with preliminary investor bids already submitted.
Flag competitors within the Olympics can also be key to the NFL’s efforts to increase curiosity within the recreation globally, with the league’s worldwide efforts changing into extra of a central focus. The NFL is scheduled to play seven worldwide video games this 12 months, together with its first regular-season video games in Dublin, Berlin and Madrid. Having flag soccer as a part of the world’s grandest worldwide sporting occasion is seen as a serious win by the NFL, which strongly supported the hassle so as to add flag soccer to the Olympics.
However that doesn’t imply getting NFL gamers to that stage will come with out obstacles.
“It is positively a piece in progress,” Vincent stated. “For the [teams], how do you get to a spot the place you are comfy, ensuring all the safeguards are in place, within the occasion that one in every of your athletes perhaps places his hand as much as probably take part?
“Ensuring that we, the league, golf equipment, gamers, gamers’ affiliation, everybody’s taking all the proper precautionary measures within the occasion that somebody needs to go characterize the nation, that’s nonetheless a piece in progress.”
THE OWNERS’ VOTE authorizes the NFL to work towards the targets outlined within the proposal, with all future agreements topic to the result of negotiations with the NFL Gamers Affiliation and the assorted Olympic governing our bodies.
Damage safety would, maybe, be the largest impediment.
Presently, accidents that happen away from official group features are categorized as “non-football accidents,” and groups are usually not required to pay a participant’s wage whereas he recovers from one. However the decision proposes damage safety and salary-cap reduction stemming from an damage to a participant taking part within the Olympics.
The league would additionally search an settlement with Olympic officers to make sure that NFL minimal requirements are met for medical staffs and taking part in fields used for competitions.
Flag soccer is just not as harmful as sort out soccer. That is why the NFL has moved to a flag-football mannequin within the Professional Bowl Video games lately. However the prospect of accidents stays actual and have to be accounted for prematurely.
Because of this, there is not common settlement that this can be a good concept.
Gutenkunst, for instance, cited “the chance” of damage because the factor that gave him pause.
Insurance coverage preparations shall be a serious part of resolving this concern. The decision states a number of league-wide insurance coverage insurance policies can be looked for damage safety.
In fact, protecting monetary losses from an damage is simply a part of the equation. It doesn’t, for example, make shedding a key participant any much less painful in terms of changing him on the sector.
“We wish the very best well being and security requirements, identical to we do in a [NFL] recreation,” stated Jeff Miller, NFL govt vice chairman for communications, public affairs and coverage. “So, we wish to speak to the gamers affiliation in regards to the fields, we wish to speak to the governing physique and others who could also be within the enterprise of regulating that to ensure that we get that proper.”
To not be ignored right here is the potential battle of Olympic duties with the NFL’s offseason and coaching camp schedule. NFL coaching camps happen in late July, and the ’28 Video games are scheduled for July 14-30.
The NBA, NHL and Main League Baseball way back found out methods by which their gamers might take part in worldwide competitions, so there are blueprints for the NFL to comply with.
Nevertheless it’s a brand new idea for soccer, which has a three-phase offseason program that often begins earlier than the draft in April and lasts till mid-June. The decision in entrance of homeowners is imprecise on this entrance, saying solely that “flag-football video games and associated occasions” must be scheduled in a means “that doesn’t unreasonably battle with an NFL participant’s league and membership commitments.”
What which means, particularly, stays to be seen. The present expectation of nationwide group hopefuls underneath USA Soccer — the game’s governing physique in america — is that they attend the Workforce USA coaching camp previous to worldwide competitions. That is when evaluations are made and the ultimate roster and alternates chosen. How all of this is able to dovetail with the NFL’s offseason exercise schedule and preseason camps stays unclear.
When the subject was broached lately with Baltimore Ravens coach John Harbaugh, he wasn’t precisely thrilled about the potential for his dual-threat quarterback, two-time Most Beneficial Participant Lamar Jackson, being absent for parts of an offseason.
“I am afraid I’ve a quarterback that’d in all probability be fairly good at [flag football], so, no, I am not that enthusiastic about that in all honesty,” Harbaugh stated. “I consider in America. I need gold medals, however …”
The NFL might modify its schedule, because the NHL has agreed to do by instituting an Olympic break through the 2026 and 2030 Winter Video games. Nevertheless it’s unclear whether or not such an answer has been broached.
Cleveland Browns basic supervisor Andrew Berry introduced some levity to the controversy, addressing the hypothetical of a star participant like Mahomes taking part within the ’28 Video games. Go for it, Berry successfully stated, hinting that Mahomes’ absence would not be ultimate for AFC powerhouse Kansas Metropolis — however probably helpful for opponents.
“I am maybe somewhat bit skeptical that perhaps we’ll see the Patrick Mahomeses of the world skip [training camp], as a lot as I might be very in favor of that, if he is listening,” Berry stated. “Skip coaching camp and do the Olympics.
“I feel it stays to be seen what that appears like. However I need that to achieve success for our sport.”
MEDICAL RESEARCHERS HAVE solely lately begun amassing information on the well being influence and damage dangers of flag soccer. A 2021 research led by a doctor on the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention (CDC) indicated that head accidents in flag soccer are about 15 occasions much less frequent than sort out soccer at comparable age ranges.
The comparatively nonviolent nature of flag soccer promotes a notion of low threat for a few of the NFL’s most necessary decision-makers.
“[Injuries] would not be a problem for me,” Jerry Jones stated. “Timing, availability, conflicts [would be]. However I would not be involved with accidents. Not with flag.”
Ought to Jones be extra involved? Dr. Robert Parisien, orthopedic sports activities medication surgeon from New York Mt. Sinai Well being System, coauthored a 2025 research analyzing 10 years of flag soccer damage information pulled from the Nationwide Digital Damage Surveillance System. The research discovered 2,508 accidents attributed to flag soccer over that interval that have been critical sufficient to be offered in hospital emergency rooms, and it decided that the most typical accidents for adults have been to fingers, probably as they prolonged to seize flags, in addition to sprains and strains.
“There is definitely threat of damage in flag soccer,” Parisien stated, “and that is type of one of many misnomers, that flag soccer has a really low threat of damage to it. Head collisions and trauma could also be much less in flag soccer than involved soccer, but it surely nonetheless happens. You see some muscle strains, tendon strains, but it surely’s actually powerful to extrapolate and see what a younger NFL-caliber athlete could expertise.
Jalen Ramsey displaying no mercy to Tyreek Hill on the Professional Bowl 😂
🎥: @NFL pic.twitter.com/178hLtjlnY
— NFL on CBS 🏈 (@NFLonCBS) February 5, 2023
“As a result of I’ll say that in flag soccer, particularly when you’re taking part in it aggressively and also you’re that degree of athlete, you are taking part in on the aggressive degree that they’ll play this at, they’re actually in danger for head trauma, and completely strains and sprains like normal. However they’re in danger for concussions. They’re in danger for ligamentous damage. The commonest mechanism, for instance, for an ACL rupture is a noncontact twisting damage. That is not contact-related.”
The NFL wants solely to return in its personal historical past to seek out the nightmare state of affairs. Patriots operating again Robert Edwards suffered a catastrophic left knee damage whereas taking part in a sanctioned flag soccer recreation on a seaside in Hawaii throughout Professional Bowl week in February 1999. Edwards tore all three ligaments within the knee, partially tore a fourth and in addition ruptured an artery after leaping to catch a move. He missed three full seasons, returned for a quick stint with the Miami Dolphins in 2002 and finally retired.
Edwards’ plight is an excessive instance and will have been exacerbated by sand that will not be current on the Olympics. However Parisien referenced it as a reminder of the vary of threat.
“I am certain in his thoughts he thought, ‘Effectively, I am solely taking part in flag soccer. I’m in all probability going to be fantastic. I am going to simply go and have some enjoyable, proper?'” Parisien stated. “Do not get me incorrect. Personally, I feel it is fantastic that these athletes wish to compete in flag soccer underneath our flag and characterize our nation. I feel that is improbable. I personally suppose that is an exquisite factor that they wish to do.
“However as a doctor, I’ve to say that after all they’re liable to damage.”
DARRELL “HOUSH” DOUCETTE is without doubt one of the world’s premier flag gamers. A quarterback on Workforce USA and the longest-tenured member of the nationwide group, Doucette was among the many gamers referred to as upon by the NFL to provide gamers a crash course on flag soccer earlier than latest Professional Bowls.
Doucette does not have the identify recognition of the NFL’s greatest stars, however he nonetheless believes he’s simply as well-suited to play for a gold medal as most of the finest gamers in professional soccer. He welcomes the competitors — simply not the assumptions in regards to the finish end result.
“We simply do not suppose they are going to have the ability to stroll on the sector and make the Olympic group due to the identify,” he instructed The Guardian final 12 months. “They nonetheless should go on the market and compete.”
He is acquired some extent.
The thought of NFL gamers competing within the Olympics may be thrilling, however there are a slew of gamers who’ve been competing on the worldwide stage in flag soccer — and, within the case of Workforce USA, dominating — for years. The U.S. males have received the previous 5 world championships. The ladies have received the previous three.
The NFL has gamers with ties to greater than 70 nations, so there’s a lengthy listing of countries that gamers might probably characterize within the Olympics. However for American gamers and people from nations with a protracted historical past of competing, there must be no assumption that NFL gamers shall be finest suited to what’s a really totally different recreation.
“On the finish of the day, I really feel like I am higher than Patrick Mahomes due to my IQ of the sport.”
-US Flag soccer QB Darrell Doucette
— Barstool Sports activities (@barstoolsports) August 21, 2024
“There’s some refined variations between sort out soccer and flag soccer, and I am not going to imagine that sort out soccer gamers are the easiest possibility, to be fairly sincere with you,” Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin stated. “We’ll see. It is going to be thrilling and fascinating for me. Looks like measurement is much less of a consider flag soccer. We would have … a bunch of 140-pound guys operating round on the market. I do not know.”
Presently, there are numerous necessities set forth by USA Soccer that gamers should undergo earlier than ascending to the U.S. nationwide group (every nationwide group can develop its personal course of). Athletes who advance obtain an invitation to the USA Soccer trials, the place the pool is trimmed to 60 gamers. These gamers advance to the USA Soccer coaching camp, the place the ultimate roster — 10 gamers for the 2028 Olympics — shall be chosen.
That is a probably prolonged course of, maybe complicating NFL gamers’ skill to pursue a roster spot. However a streamlined pathway for NFL gamers might be applied in the event that they obtain approval to compete.
“If NFL gamers are eligible, we’re prepared to assist create alternatives for these athletes to showcase their abilities and be included on the nationwide group,” stated Scott Hallenbeck, CEO and govt director of USA Soccer. “USA Soccer’s final aim is to carry house two gold medals in flag soccer, and we’re dedicated to exploring each path to construct the strongest Workforce USA potential.”
However for NFL gamers to be part of that effort, a labyrinth of points should first be navigated. And the events aren’t fairly there simply but.
“How can we go about it, crossing all of the T’s, dotting all of the I’s, ensuring everybody’s comfy?” Vincent stated. “There’s nonetheless some work to do for certain.”
Brooke Pryor, Daniel Oyefusi, Rob Demovsky and Jamison Hensley contributed to this report.
