Sources – NFL to allow players to play flag football at 2028 Olympics

A vote on whether to allow NFL players to participate in flag football at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics is expected to pass at Tuesday’s league meeting in Minneapolis, sources told ESPN’s Adam Schefter.

The resolution needs to be approved by at least 24 of the 32 team owners. The league then will need to negotiate with the NFL Players Association, Olympic officials and national governing bodies on the specifics of letting NFL players participate.

The resolution on Olympic flag football participation is one of multiple items expected to be voted on this week. Owners also will vote on the Green Bay Packers’ proposal to ban the controversial tush push play and the Detroit Lions’ proposal to reseed playoff teams based on regular-season record, but sources told Schefter that those votes are not expected until Wednesday.

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Although the fate of the tush push and playoff reseeding resolutions remained uncertain as of Tuesday morning, a source told Schefter that passing the resolution on the Olympic flag football participation “should be easy.”

The flag football resolution establishes rules and a basic structure for how the NFL hopes to see the process work, subject to negotiations with the NFLPA and Olympics-related entities. They include:

• Permission for any player under NFL contract to participate in tryouts

• A limit of one player per NFL team on each national team participating

• Allowing, in addition, a team’s designated international player to play for his home country

• A purchase of leaguewide insurance policies to provide injury protection for any player injured while participating in an authorized flag football activity related to the Olympics

• A salary cap credit for any player who is injured

• An expectation that Olympic flag football teams will establish medical staffs and field surfaces that comply with NFL minimum standards

• A schedule that “does not unreasonably conflict with an NFL player’s league and club commitments.”

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and other key league officials made their support for participation at the Olympics clear during their most recent meetings in Palm Beach, Florida, last month.

The Los Angeles Summer Olympics are scheduled to take place from July 14, 2028, to July 30, 2028. NFL players are typically off during most of that period. At worst, flag football participants would miss the start of training camp.

ESPN’s Kevin Seifert and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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