Flag football is still football. Even without contact, a risk of injury remains.
And it was clear on Saturday that, for the active NFL quarterbacks in the Fanatics Flag Football Classic, there was much more activity than target practice in seven-on-seven drills.
Watch this clip of the things Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow was doing. Cutting, spinning, falling, diving. Ditto for Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels.
Grant Paulsen of 106.7 The Fan in D.C. had this to say during the games: “Jayden Daniels is playing receiver, running routes, juking guys. [Team USA] is playing like it’s an NFL playoff game. Biggest day of their careers. There have been collisions. I just can’t believe the Commanders are cool with this.”
There was, at one point, a vague sense that Daniels was hoping the team would tell him not to do it — and that the team was hoping Daniels would decide not to do it. The all-important third year of his career to date is coming, and any injury would have complicated his effort to fully prepare for the football season to come.
In the end, and as far as we know, none of the active NFL players were injured. Former Patriots and Buccaneers tight end Rob Gronkowski pulled a hamstring after catching a pass for a two-point conversion on the first drive of his team’s first game. For active players, a hamstring injury could mean weeks of rest and rehab, with the offseason program coming very soon.
So, yes, there’s a risk. It’ll be there during next year’s Fanatics Flag Football Classic. It’ll be there if/when USA Football decides to hold a competition to determine the participants in the U.S. men’s national team for the 2028 Olympics. It’ll be there for the Olympics, which will happen days before the opening of training camps.
The NFL seems to be willing to accept that risk in pursuit of the reward that comes from further globalizing the game. The individual teams are going along with it, with silent reluctance. The players, for the most part, don’t think about injuries until they happen.
Still, the risk is there. And quarterbacks, as we saw on Saturday, are far more involved in flag football than standing behind the action and throwing passes.
Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow wants to be an Olympian.
Flag football will be an Olympic sport for the first time in Los Angeles in 2028, and Burrow says that as soon as the Olympics made that decision, he was intrigued by the idea of being an Olympian.
“I’ve always wanted to play in the Olympics,” Burrow said, via the Cincinnati Enquirer. “I’ve never necessarily played an Olympic sport before, so when this got announced, I was pretty excited about it.”
Burrow said he grew up loving the Olympics, and for the first time in his life, participating in it seems like a realistic possibility.
“The opportunity to win a gold medal [is] something that I’ve thought about - a moment like that - for a long time, since I was a kid. I think it would be something very special,” Burrow said.
It’s unclear, however, whether NFL players will make the U.S. Olympic team in 2028. At Saturday’s Fanatics Flag Football Classic, Burrow and his fellow NFL players were unable to compete on the same level as the flag football players who have been playing and practicing the flag game for years. NFL players are superior athletes, but flag football is a different sport that requires different skills, and if the U.S. wants to win the gold medal — and not just use the Olympics to promote the NFL to a global audience — it may be experienced flag players, not NFL players, representing Team USA.
Flag football is very different from tackle football. And the current and former NFL players facing the U.S. men’s national flag football team are learning that.
The first half of the game between the U.S. team and the Wildcats (captained by Joe Burrow and Jayden Daniels) did not go well for the pro players. The first drive by the Wildcats failed to result in a first down. The U.S. team went right down the field, with the NFL players struggling to master the skill of grabbing flags.
The opening drive by the U.S. team included multiple penalties against the Wildcats for excessive contact. After quarterback Darrell “Housh” Doucette III scored a touchdown on a running play (which included another penalty for illegal contact), Doucette chirped at non-football player Logan Paul. Paul removed Doucette’s sunglasses and threw them, drawing another foul.
Then came a pick six of Burrow, two plays later.
The Wildcats finally woke up, with a long touchdown pass by Burrow to DeAndre Hopkins, who easily boxed out the defender caught the undersized ball with one hand.
The U.S. team scored on the next drive, pushing the score to 19-6 after one half.
While the NFL players are generally bigger and faster and stronger (that said, Doucette seems to be able to weave through and around them), the tackle football players are clearly out of their element. If NFL playershope to represent the U.S. in the 2028 Olympics, they’ll need time to learn the game, and to figure out the rules. Which will take more than a casual commitment.
If, like me, you have little interest in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament (West Virginia didn’t make it, again), there’s something else on TV during round two.
On Saturday at 4:00 p.m. ET, Fox will televise the Fanatics Flag Football Classic, which has been relocated from Saudi Arabia to Los Angeles.
The format changed, too. In lieu of three teams full of current and former NFL players and random celebrities, one of the three teams will be the U.S. men’s national flag football team.
The rosters for the other two teams were sent on Wednesday, in a draft conducted by the Founders (led by Tom Brady and Jalen Hurts) and the Wildcats (led by Jayden Daniels and Joe Burrow).
Joining Brady and Hurts on the Founders will be: Raiders running back Ashton Jeanty, Saints running back Alvin Kamara, former Patriots and Buccaneers tight end Rob Gronkowski, Buccaneers safety Antoine Winfield Jr., Eagles receiver DeVonta Smith, free-agent receiver Stefon Diggs, free-agent pass rusher Von Miller, free-agent safety Damar Hamlin, former NFL defensive back Patrick Peterson, and boxer Terence Crawford.
Beyond Daniels and Burrow on the Wildcats are: Eagles running back Saquon Barkley, 49ers fullback Kyle Juszczyk, free-agent receiver Odell Beckham Jr., Rams receiver Davante Adams, free-agent receiver DeAndre Hopkins, Chargers safety Derwin James Jr., Hall of Fame linebacker Luke Kuechly, Steelers safety Jalen Ramsey, Logan Paul, and someone who goes by the name iShowSpeed.
The rosters don’t include Browns defensive end Myles Garrett or free-agent receiver Deebo Samuel, who had previously been announced as participants in the game.
The U.S. men’s flag football team is led by Darrell “Housh” Doucette III, who made waves after the Olympics added flag football by declaring that he’s a better option for the assignment than Patrick Mahomes.
More recently, Doucette said he hopes flag players will have a fair shot to represent the country in the Olympics. They’re sort of getting it this weekend, and they’ll surely be taking it seriously.
If the NFL players don’t, the end result could be a realization that maybe the guys who know the rules and realities and strategies of flag football may be better suited to being on the Olympic team.
Free agent defensive back Tycen Anderson is signing a one-year deal with the Broncos, James Rapien of SI.com reports.
Anderson, 26, has spent his career with the Bengals since they made him a fifth-round pick in 2022.
He missed his rookie season with a hamstring injury and saw the next season end prematurely with a knee injury in Week 8. But Anderson has played all 34 possible games the past two seasons.
Anderson is a core special teams player, with 64 career defensive snaps and 850 on special teams.
He has 42 career tackles.
Anderson is the first external free agent to agree to terms with the Broncos, who traded with the Dolphins for wide receiver Jaylen Waddle earlier this week.
The Cowboys released linebacker Logan Wilson last month and he won’t be joining another team for the 2026 season.
Wilson, who will turn 30 this summer, announced his retirement in a post to his Instagram account on Wednesday.
Wilson’s retirement message focused on gratitude for his time with the Bengals. They selected Wilson in the third round of the 2020 NFL Draft and Wilson played with the team until he was traded to Dallas during the 2025 season.
Wilson started 65 of the 76 games he played in Cincinnati and left the team with 541 tackles, 11 interceptions, 5.5 sacks, six forced fumbles and three fumble recoveries. He had 24 tackles and a forced fumble in seven games for the Cowboys.
The Colts are reuniting defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo with a player he coached with the Bengals.
Indianapolis announced on Tuesday that the club has signed cornerback Cam Taylor-Britt.
As noted by Tom Pelissero of NFL Media, Taylor-Britt’s contract is for one year.
A Bengals second-round pick in 2022, Taylor-Britt played his first three seasons with Anarumo as his defensive coordinator. Last season, Taylor-Britt appeared in eight games with two starts, recording five passes defensed.
In his 47 career games with 40 starts, Taylor-Britt has recorded seven interceptions with 38 passes defended.
Fox is bringing out the big guns for the Fanatics Flag Football Classic.
On Monday, Fox announced that Kevin Burkhardt and Greg Olsen will call the action. They previously formed the No. 1 NFL team on Fox, until Fox threw $37.5 million per year at Tom Brady and demoted Olsen, who is widely regarded as a better game analyst than Brady.
Brady isn’t available this time around, because he’s one of the players.
The three-team tournament is scheduled to be televised from 4:00 p.m. ET until 8:30 p.m. ET on Saturday, March 21. It will be competing directly with the second round of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament.
Two teams of current NFL players, former NFL players, and random celebrities will compete against the U.S. men’s national flag football team. Tom Brady and Jalen Hurts will captain one team (coached by Sean Payton), and Joe Burrow and Jayden Daniels will captain the other (coached by Kyle Shanahan).
Teams will be selected from the pool of said current NFL players, former NFL players, and random celebrities.
The game had originally been scheduled for Saudi Arabia. It was moved after war broke out in the Middle East.
The story of the Bengals in recent seasons has been that they’re capable of doing big things on offense, but that their defense has not been able to hold up its end of the bargain.
Defensive tackle Jonathan Allen thinks that it is time to start changing the narrative in Cincinnati. Allen signed with the team after being released by the Vikings last week and met with the media for the first time since making the move late last week.
The Bengals also signed edge rusher Boye Mafe and safety Bryan Cook to join a defense that has added more than a dozen players via the last few drafts and Allen thinks those moves will bear fruit for the team in 2026.
“This is one of the few places I can compete for a Super Bowl and have a chance to showcase my talent,” Allen said, via the team’s website. “When you see what they have on the offensive side of the ball, that’s a dream for a defensive lineman. I think people would be lining up to play with a guy like Joe Burrow and the offense they have. Then the young guys you have on defense and the pieces you’re adding, I really think this team is going somewhere.”
Another facet of the Bengals’ story in recent years has been the time Burrow has missed due to injury. There’s little Allen can do to help on that front, but helping to fix the defense would be a big step in the right direction for Cincinnati.
The well-traveled Josh Johnson is traveling back to Cincinnati.
The Bengals announced on Saturday that Johnson has signed a one-year deal.
Johnson, who turns 40 in May, was a fifth-round pick of the Buccaneers in 2008. He has spent time with the Bucs, 49ers, Sacramento Mountain Lions of the original UFL, Browns, Bengals, 49ers (second stint), Bengals (second stint), Jets, Colts, Bills, Ravens, Giants, Texans, Raiders, San Diego Fleet of the AAF, Washington, Lions, L.A. Wildcats of the XFL, 49ers (third stint), Jets (second stint), Ravens (second stint), Broncos, 49ers (fourth stint), Ravens (third stint), Commanders (second stint), and now the Bengals for a third time.
He has appeared in 50 regular-season games with 11 starts. His starts have happened with only three teams: the Buccaneers, Commanders, and Ravens. His two most recent starts came in Weeks 17 and 18 of the 2025 season, for Washington.
Johnson also has appeared in one playoff game — the 2023 NFC Championship, after 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy made an early exit with an elbow injury. Johnson completed seven of 13 passes before suffering a concussion.
Johnson joins Joe Burrow and Sean Clifford on Cincinnati’s roster. Joe Flacco arrived via trade in 2025, appearing in nine games with six starts. He’s currently a free agent.
