NFL Wants to Make Flag Football an Olympic Sport

The NFL’s plan to make football a genuinely international sport reportedly includes making flag football an Olympic sport.

Damani Leech, COO of NFL International, told CNBC’s Jabari Young that the league hopes to make flag football an Olympic event by 2028.

“If flag football becomes an Olympic sport, more countries will invest in playing that sport,” Leech said.

One may reasonably wonder why the NFL would pursue flag football as an Olympic sport instead of tackle football. However, there is a method to the NFL’s madness.

“To make it an Olympic sport, however, more countries already need to be invested.” Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio writes. “And it needs to be a sport played both by men and women. That’s what makes flag football a potentially more viable alternative than full-pads tackle football.”

The NFL has gained traction as a sport in the United Kingdom, Mexico, Germany, and a few other countries in Western Europe. However, it has not enjoyed the broad international appeal that soccer, basketball, and baseball have enjoyed. One of the league’s problems in trying to grow the sport is how expensive it is to play tackle football.

Jacksonville Jaguars mascot in London, 2021 (Alex Pantling/Getty Images)

There aren’t many countries outside North America and Western Europe that can afford to outfit dozens of football teams in helmets, pads, etc. By promoting the idea of flag football, the league broadens the ability of more countries to play the sport.