Source: Olympics flag football team with NFL players likely will have minimal prep time

Today’s expected decision by owners to give the green light to the loaning of up to one player per NFL team for the 2028 Olympic flag football competition is the beginning, not the end.

Many details will still need to be resolved, including the procedure for selecting the U.S. men’s team to the final roster’s preparations to participate in a flag-football competition.

As one source with knowledge of the situation explains it to PFT, an Olympic flag football team consisting of active NFL players likely will have minimal prep time in advance of the L.A. games.

If nothing else, it will make the competition more interesting. On one hand, NFL players are among the best athletes in the world. On the other hand, flag football is very different from tackle football. Beyond now knowing the rules (and how to exploit them strategically), players who don’t play with each other during football season will have to find a way to build the proper chemistry within the confines of a two-week tournament.

The offseason programs end by the middle of June. In 2028, the Olympics begin on July 14. If the players go straight from OTAs/mandatory minicamp to flag football training camp, they’ll have no summer break that year. The more time off they get before the gathering of the flag football players, the less time they’ll have to get ready to be anything other than flatfooted as seasoned, knowledgeable, and cohesive flag football players potentially run circles around them.

If nothing else, it will make for an interesting experiment. Can NFL players with little preparation and no experience playing competitive flag football pick it up quickly enough to take advantage of their massive talent gap?

While it’s a no-lose proposition for the NFL to inject its players onto the international stage of the Olympics, it’s a no-win proposition for the individual players. If they win, they were supposed to. If they lose, it will be a massive embarrassment.

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