We all know how much Las Vegas Raiders minority owner Tom Brady loves his side hustles, and he loves the spotlight even more. We’re not sure that means it will be worthwhile to watch today’s Fanatics Flag Football Classic, but it does actually come with serious Olympic implications.
The exhibition will feature two squads of NFL stars along with Team USA in a round-robin tournament at BMO Stadium in Los Angeles, and according to Tim Graham of The Athletic it will go a long way toward “enlightening” the Olympic debate as the flag-football specialists compete with established NFL players.
“The skill sets are similar,” said Brady, who’s both a co-promoter and participant. “The rules are quite a bit different. But really, it will be a great gauge for all these players and the players that will be participating in L.A. 2028 to see where we’re at and what we need to do in the next few years.”
The NFL coaches will be Sean Payton and Kyle Shanahan, and Graham added that they’ve have been spending a lot of time on the phone lately trying to figure out exactly what they’d gotten themselves into.
“There was a period when I don’t know that we were getting anything done in free agency with the Broncos,” Payton said, “but we were figuring out this five-on-five thing.”
Team USA was added to the mix when the event was shifted from Saudi Arabia to Los Angeles, and the group is something of a juggernaut in flag football. According to Graham, the Americans haven’t lost an International Federation of American Football (IFAF) tournament since 2018, winning by an average score of 50-17.
But this event gives them something to prove, according to Hall of Fame quarterback Drew Brees, who’s a flag football advocate as well as a “co-commissioner” of the event.
“When it was first announced the 2028 Olympics were going to have five-(on)-five flag football, immediately everybody started talking about Patrick Mahomes, Tyreek Hill. ‘Who are the NFL players that should represent Team USA and create the Dream Team for flag football?’”
But that perspective left Team USA out of the mix, and there are some who expect the specialists to get the last laugh in this event. The sports books have Team USA as a six-point favorite against either NFL team, mostly because NFL players are still learning the game, the Olympic version of which is played don a 50-by-25 yard field with no contact, no blocks and issues involving flag pulling, which is considered difficult to master.
“You can talk about the rules, read the rules,” Payton said. “But once all that film came in — I think I watched 17 games — you get a better appreciation of the nuances and just the art of grabbing a flag.
“It goes back to when you were a kid and one-hand touch. You’re getting skinny. You’re turning your hips. Anything to not get touched is essentially what you’re trying to do with these flags. Then you start to see multiple quarterbacks, then who’s the designated rusher?”
Some of the ads and quotes for this event have played up the humor aspect, so it will be interesting to see what happens on the field if the competition does actually get fierce.
“We’ll be going one-on-one with 10 people out there on a tennis court,” Shanahan said. “I really don’t know what’s going to happen.”