The Olympics return to Los Angeles in 2028. When they do, flag football will make its debut.
Although the NFL seems to be generally open to the idea of current NFL players participating — and the July 14-30 window for the L.A. games is conducive to it — plenty of issues remain.
From the players’ perspective, and as addressed earlier this week on #PFTPM, there’s a real question regarding whether they will still be compensated by their NFL teams in the event of an injury. Even in no-contact football, injuries are possible. Former Patriots running back Robert Edwards, for example, had a promising career derailed by a serious knee injury suffered in a rookie beach football game played in conjunction with the 1998 Pro Bowl.
The easy fix is for teams to agree that any injury suffered while playing Olympic flag football would still result in the player being paid. But what’s the incentive for any team to do that?
Looking at it more broadly, why would any team agree to waive the general language preventing players from playing football for anyone other than the team that pays them to do so? That term is present to protect the investment the teams have made in the players. Why would the teams and their owners just give that up?
Even if the players would be compensated by a league-wide pool or some other device aimed at preventing the teams from losing money, the teams would still risk losing the player. Again, what’s the incentive for the teams to do it?
That’s why it’s not really a surprise that, as explained by Ben Fischer of Sports Business Journal, owners “are more guarded” than league officials regarding the prospect of current players playing flag football in the Olympics.
The league and its teams have five years to figure it all out. For now, though, there’s reason to wonder whether any owner will assume the risk of losing a key player to an Olympics flag-football injury — especially when the owner has no reason whatsoever to assume that risk.
And, for the players, it’s critical that they have full protection against any revenue that would be lost if/when a fluke injury impacts or even ends a career.
The best approach could be for free agents and recently-retired players to populate the U.S. flag-football team. For every high-level current player, his chance to win a gold medal will come once no one (including the player himself) will be taking a major risk by playing competitive football that, despite including no tackling, still carries with it the very real possibility of injury.