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Flag Football Classic: NFL Stars Have Work Cut Out For Them Chasing Olympic Dreams

The U.S. flag football team outclassed the NFL’s stars on Saturday.
Eva Geitheim|
Tom Brady threw a touchdown during the Flag Football Classic.
Tom Brady threw a touchdown during the Flag Football Classic. | Fox Sports.

Some of the NFL’s top current and former stars took the field in Los Angeles on Saturday for the inaugural Fanatics Flag Football Classic.

Team Founders, captained by Tom Brady and Jalen Hurts, and Team Wildcats, captained by Joe Burrow and Jayden Daniels, faced off against the Team USA flag football squad. The exhibition games are taking place over two years before the 2028 Olympic Games, when flag football will be an Olympic sport for the first time.

Since it was announced that flag football would be played in the Olympics and NFL owners gave their players permission to partake in the next Olympics, a number of NFL stars have expressed interest in the opportunity to represent Team USA at the 2028 Los Angeles Games.

Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow said ahead of the flag football game that he had always wanted to play in the Olympics. "I've never necessarily played an Olympic sport before, so when this got announced, I was pretty excited about it," said Burrow. "The opportunity to win a gold medal, that’s something that I've thought about, a moment like that, for a long time, since I was a kid. I think it would be something very special."

The question will be if any NFL stars can actually challenge the flag football players for a spot on Team USA. For now, it doesn’t seem like the U.S. flag football team has too much to worry about, even if the NFL stars made some nice plays, including DeAndre Hopkins and Odell Beckham Jr. hauling in one-handed touchdowns and Tom Brady evading a defender and connecting with Stefon Diggs for six.

Those highlights were about it for the Wildcats and Founders through their games against Team USA. The U.S. flag football team was dominant, executing with ease to beat Team Wildcats and Team Founders.

They defeated the Wildcats, a team featuring Logan Paul and streamer IShowSpeed along with Burrow, Daniels, DeAndre Hopkins, Saquon Barkley, Odell Beckham Jr., Davante Adams, Kyle Juszczyk, Luke Kuechly and Jalen Ramsey, 39-14. They then went for the encore as they took down the Founders 43-16. That team consisted of Brady, Hurts, Diggs, Rob Gronkowski, Damar Hamlin, Ashton Jeanty, Alvin Kamara, Von Miller, Patrick Peterson, DeVonta Smith, Antoine Winfield Jr. and boxer Terrence Crawford.

Following those first two matchups, the two NFL teams matched up and the Wildcats defeated the Founders 34-26 to advance to the championship round. Team USA defeated the Wildcats again in the championship, 24-14

Of the NFL players, Daniels appeared to be the most ready for the flag football stage. The Commanders quarterback played flag football growing up, and it was evident on the field.

Overall, it’s clear that the NFL’s best have a lot more work to do if they want any semblance of a shot at making the Olympics in 2028. They have yet to fully adjust to the rules of flag football as at one point Burrow ran the football in for a touchdown, but he was flagged on the play since he has to hand it off or let someone else touch the football before he can run.

It’ll also take more time and effort to master the playing style of flag football. Perhaps with greater practice time, some NFL stars could become worthy of competing for Team USA at the Olympics. For now, though, they are a ways off from matching the effortless play of the U.S. flag football team.

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Eva Geitheim
EVA GEITHEIM

Eva Geitheim is an NFL writer at Sports Illustrated. Prior to joining SI in December 2024, she wrote for Newsweek, Gymnastics Now and Dodgers Nation. A Bay Area native, she has a bachelor’s in communications from UCLA. When not writing, she can be found baking or rewatching Gilmore Girls.

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