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Which Philadelphia Eagle Would be the Best Olympic Flag Football Player?
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Could NFL players be appearing at the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles?
It’s flag football, and under this resolution they’re talking about only one player from each NFL team participating. Otherwise Team USA would just be the Philadelphia Eagles. That would be the smart thing to do, and guarantee the gold medal on home turf.
Looking through the rules, it’s a 12-person squad with five players on the field at once. It says that “no running plays are permitted when the offensive team is five yards or less from the endzone.” That rules out the tush push and probably makes Saquon Barkley and Jalen Hurts less than ideal for this rule set. Therefore, we’ll remove them from the list. No linemen obviously, so all Stoutland University alumni are out. Flag football is really about throwing the ball in space and making defensive plays in space. Cooper DeJean would be a good pick on the defensive side. Maybe Quinyon Mitchell puts some poor fool from Germany in Quinyomomo Bay. DeVonta Smith is an obvious pick, maybe A.J. Brown if you want to have a big-bodied possession receiver just go straight up and catch a 50/50 ball in the end zone. Those I think would be my top four picks – DeJean, Mitchell, Smitty, A.J., and then rounding out the top five I think it’s between Ed Reed Blankenship, Jahan Dotson, and whomever else is on the receiver/DB depth chart.
In truth, we could probably roll a bunch of college kids and win the gold medal. Other countries just aren’t big on American sports. Take the All-SEC First Team from 2027 and suit ’em up, put Nick Saban in charge, and it’s in the bag baby. It would be cool to see someone like Tyreek Hill or Justin Jefferson playing flag for the United States, but we’re talking about $100 million players here. There’s no way NFL teams will allow their guys to go run off to the Olympics and risk injury. Right now the chance of this happening we will conservatively put at 13.4%. But you wouldn’t mind seeing a few pros out there in a 100-0 win against the UK.
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com