NFL bosses have put a resolution to team owners aimed at establishing the possibility of, and subsequent rules governing, NFL players participating in the flag football competition at the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced back in October 2023 that flag football would be included on the LA28 sports programme, prompting immediate speculation as to whether active NFL players would be allowed to participate and, if so, who deserved to make the squad. Numerous players immediately came out in favour of taking part, and Philadelphia Eagles QB Jalen Hurts even appeared in a promotional video celebrating the sport’s inclusion on the 2028 roster by throwing a football into L.A.’s Memorial Coliseum and lighting the famed Olympic flame in doing so.

Flag football’s inclusion, led by efforts of the International Federation of American Football (IFAF) and supported by the NFL, has since led to an increased push to showcase the category and grow it globally through overseas initiatives.

“As we celebrate the successes of Paris 2024 and the ball is thrown to LA28, we have no doubt flag football is going to light up the Games when it makes its debut in four years’ time,” IFAF president Pierre Trochet said at the time. “Young, fast, creative and played by outstanding athletes, including our global flag football ambassador Jalen Hurts, the format is the perfect fit for the Games of a new generation. Together with our partners the NFL, we share a commitment to driving the international development of American football forward and believe that flag’s inclusion in Los Angeles will further accelerate the extraordinary participation growth we are seeing worldwide.”

The IFAF and the NFL went as far as forming Vision28, a unique joint venture and partnership model which places flag football at the heart of the sport’s development goals globally, with a particular focus on accessibility and inclusion as it boosts growth in all forms of American football, especially among women and girls.

An estimated 20 million people in more than 100 countries currently play the discipline, and some 65 countries participated in IFAF continental flag football competitions last year, culminating the biggest-ever IFAF World Flag Football Championships ever held as the cream of teams converged on Lahti in Finland in August 2024.

The NFL proposal to team owners (below) will be discussed at next week’s Spring League Meeting, but posits that no more than one US player from each NFL team be able to participate in the Olympic tournament, plus each team’s designated international player, who would obviously compete his country of birth.