Sean Payton had a humbling experience coaching flag football that makes him dubious about NFL players making the Olympic team.
While flag football is set to become an Olympic sport at the 2028 Olympics, it’s a question of whether the NFL will permeate the roster, or if there’s a place for them in that sport. Denver Broncos head coach Sean Payton got a firsthand glimpse of what distinguishes flag football from the NFL as the coach of the Founders FFC team during the Fanatics Flag Football Classic. And after coaching the league’s players in that tournament, during which they lost both games – one to the existing USA team by a 43-16 defeat – Payton is more than skeptical that there’s a fit.
For one, Payton was humbled by the walloping Team USA gave his team in the tournament, made up of current and former players, including captain Tom Brady. He went so far as to compare it to the scene in Home Alone where they were the two intruders tripping over the garden hose. “It’s an entirely different game,” Payton explained at the NFL owners meetings. He’d be surprised if there are any NFL players on the Olympic team at all. The NFL owners approved a policy that allows one player per team to try out. Payton saw that there was an actual skill gap up close, and without adequate time in an NFL schedule to train for it, he just doesn’t think it’s feasible.
Here is the full story from Broncos Roundtable writer Bob McCullough’s on Payton’s candidness about his experience.
Now, Payton did point out that there are real benefits, particularly for the women’s game having a legitimate avenue to playing football. That’s something that creates a real barrier to entry for aspiring women coaches, even just as a stigma that makes the job an uphill battle. But he sees it as a different sport entirely than the NFL, one where the skill isn’t seeming to translate outright.