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.
Eagles Clips
Eagles kicker Jake Elliott will be playing under a revised contract in 2026.
Mike Garafolo of NFL Media reports that Elliott agreed to cut his base pay for the coming season from $6 million to $5 million. The Eagles guaranteed that $5 million payout in return.
Elliott is signed through 2028 with void years at the back end of the contract. The team will realize $240,000 in cap savings as a result of the move.
Elliott has been the Eagles’ kicker since 2017. He was 20-of-27 on field goals and has made 83.7 percent of his field goal attempts since joining the team.
The Panthers have received trade interest in Andy Dalton the entire offseason. After signing Kenny Pickett last week to back up Bryce Young, the team finally pulled the trigger on a trade.
Dalton, 38, is headed to the Eagles in exchange for a 2027 seventh-round pick, Adam Schefter of ESPN reports.
The 15-year veteran joins Tanner McKee behind Jalen Hurts.
Dalton has spent the past three seasons in Carolina, making seven starts. He has 10 touchdowns and seven interceptions.
He has started 169 games in his career, but he has not been a full-time starter since 2022 with the Saints, when he started 14 games. He has made a living as a backup quarterback since leaving the Bengals after the 2019 season.
The Panthers’ trade of Dalton is the league’s 18th trade since the start of the new league year last week. In 2025, there were 15 trades from the start of the league year to the NFL draft, per Schefter.
Boston Scott did not appear in a regular season game in either of the last two seasons and he won’t be trying to make it back onto the field this year.
Scott announced his retirement in a post to X.com on Wednesday.
Scott was a Saints sixth-round pick in 2018, but did not appear in a regular season game until he was signed off of their practice squad by the Eagles late in the 2018 season. Scott played in two games that season and two more in the playoffs to kick off a six-year run in Philly.
Most of that run was spent as a backup running back and occasional kick returner. Scott ran 302 times for 1,295 yards and 16 touchdowns while catching 71 passes for 566 yards and a score during his time with the Eagles. He had brief stints with the Rams and Steelers in 2024, but did not appear in anything other than preseason games that year.
The Panthers are bringing in another running back.
Carolina announced on Wednesday that the club has agreed to terms with AJ Dillon on a one-year deal.
Dillon, 27, spent last season with the Eagles after playing his first five seasons with the Packers. He appeared in just seven games, recording 60 yards rushing on 12 carries. He also caught three passes for 21 yards.
A second-round pick in 2020, Dillon’s best season came in 2021 when he registered 1,116 yards from scrimmage and seven touchdowns.
A neck injury prematurely ended his 2024 season, as he was placed on injured reserve in August and was out for the year.
In his 67 career games with 11 starts, Dillon has totaled 2,488 yards rushing with 16 touchdowns and caught 89 passes for 784 yards with two TDs.
Wide receiver Hollywood Brown will be joining the Eagles, but his search for a team almost brought him back to the first stop in his NFL career.
Brown was a 2019 first-round pick in Baltimore and spent three seasons with the team before being traded to the Cardinals. That trade came after Brown requested a move because he didn’t feel the offensive system was the right one for him.
That system has changed since Brown left the team. Jesse Minter is now the head coach with Declan Doyle on the staff as the offensive coordinator and those changes may have helped lead Brown to think about a second stint with the Ravens.
“I was really considering going back to Baltimore,” Brown said on the Speakeasy podcast. “I got good relationships there. I really let my agent handle it until it got down to what it got down to. This is my second time in free agency, so I kinda don’t want the small talk. I let him deal with it. When it got down to who really wants me, who he thinks is really showing interest, then I want to talk and get involved.”
Brown didn’t delve into how close things came with the Ravens and what ultimately swayed him to the Eagles, although he did say that they had been his favorite team growing up and that he’s looking forward to playing with quarterback Jalen Hurts.
The Ravens have not added any wideouts to the roster this month, but being in the mix for Brown might be a sign that they are looking to bolster that group ahead of the draft.
The Eagles are making an addition to their receiving corps.
Marquise “Hollywood” Brown, who has spent the last two seasons with the Chiefs, has agreed to a one-year deal with the Eagles, according to Jordan Schultz.
Philadelphia’s receiving corps has been scrutinized all offseason amid talk that wide receiver A.J. Brown could be traded. That hasn’t happened yet, but if it does, the Eagles will be glad they’ve added depth with Hollywood Brown.
Last season with the Chiefs, Hollywood Brown played in 16 games and caught 49 passes for 587 yards and five touchdowns.
Originally a 2019 first-round pick of the Ravens, Brown’s best season came in 2021, when he caught 91 passes for 1,008 yards. The following offseason the Ravens traded him to the Cardinals, but in two years in Arizona he never had the same kind of impact, and in his two years in Kansas City he had even less of an impact.
Now the Eagles will hope Hollywood can make an impact in Philadelphia. Especially if he’s replacing A.J. Brown.
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.
Cornerback Darius Slay said recently that no team other than the Eagles should call him about playing in 2026, but now it seems that even the Eagles shouldn’t bother reaching out to him.
In a post to X.com on Monday, Slay announced that he is retiring from the NFL. Slay wrote that he has reached the time for a “new chapter” and that he’s “ready to turn the page” on an NFL career that began as a Lions second-round pick in 2013.
Slay remained with the Lions through the 2019 season and made an All-Pro team before moving on to the Eagles in a trade in 2020. He helped the Eagles to an NFC title after the 2022 season and won a Super Bowl in his final game with the team.
Slay signed a one-year deal with the Steelers in 2025, but was waived by a mutual agreement in December. He was claimed off of waivers by the Bills and declined to report amid speculation that he hoped to return to the Eagles.
Slay had 655 tackles, 28 interceptions, two forced fumbles, six fumble recoveries and six touchdowns over the course of his career.
After he was waived by the Steelers last season and claimed by the Bills, Slay declined to play in Buffalo. But he did go to Philadelphia to watch the Eagles in a playoff game. And he now says the Eagles are the one team he’d consider playing for in 2026.
In a short clip on social media that Slay himself has re-posted, Slay says the Eagles are the only team that can call him.
“No team can call me but Eagles. No team can call me, everybody knows,” Slay said.
The 35-year-old Slay may just retire if he doesn’t end up on the Eagles, where he previously played from 2020 to 2024. Slay won a Super Bowl ring and was selected to three Pro Bowls while playing for the Eagles. Slay also played for the Lions from 2013 to 2019 and for the Steelers for 10 games last season.
