As expected, the war in the Middle East has forced the Saudi Arabian flag football event out of Saudi Arabia.
Via Sports Business Journal, Fanatics Studios has announced that the March 21 three-team tournament will relocate to Los Angeles. The games will be played at BMO Stadium, a 22,000-seat soccer venue that will host flag football games during the 2028 Olympics.
The latest announcement has a new twist. Two teams will consist of current and former NFL players. The third team will be the U.S. men’s national team.
As initially described, the tournament consisted of three teams coached by Kyle Shanahan, Sean Payton, and Pete Carroll. Now, the coaches with NFL ties will be Shanahan and Payton, with Robert Saleh serving as the defensive specialist for both of the teams made up of non-flag players.
On March 18, the two teams will pick players from a pool that is expected to include Saquon Barkley, Myles Garrett, Odell Beckham Jr., Rob Gronkowski, and Logan Paul (with Paul there, Le’Veon Bell could make an unscheduled appearance).
The involvement of the U.S. men’s team will indeed make it a real competition. USA Football will eventually determine the identity of the U.S. men’s team for the Olympics. The existing flag football players will want to show that they deserve fair consideration. And the flag players know the flag game far better than the non-flag players do.
That alone makes the tournament far more compelling. And it underscores that the active NFL players who will be participating will be assuming a risk of injury that is less than playing tackle football but greater than not playing flag football against a team of flag-football experts with something to prove.
