There is hope within the football community that a decision on whether NFL players will participate in the 2028 Olympics will come as soon as next spring, multiple sources have told CBS Sports.
An update on flag football is expected at next week’s league meetings in Irving, Texas, according to sources. But it should be just a small update related to the Pro Bowl Games, which now feature flag football as its main event, and the continuing questions about NFL players’ participation in the Olympics.
The NFL is expected to give a full presentation to team owners about players’ possible participation in the Olympics at the league’s annual meetings in March in Florida. A vote could take place at that time or it could be postponed until a later meeting.
Flag football will be an Olympic event for the first time when Los Angeles hosts the 2028 Summer Games. And there is a strong desire within the league to make the sport a permanent fixture at the Olympics for years to come, continuing with the 2032 Olympic Games in Australia.
But there are important questions that must be determined before the NFL’s top stars can fly the flags in pursuit of a gold medal. The problems, of course, start with money, but they don’t end there.
“It’s pretty complicated,” one source rightly said.
The first issue is simple: The NFL’s collective bargaining agreement with the players union does not cover international competition. This can be resolved with a simple amendment to the collective bargaining agreement, which was ratified in 2020 and extends through the 2030 season.
In the NBA CBA, there is an exclusion for competition in the Olympic Games and “preparatory exhibition games in connection with” the Olympic Games. The 2020 NHL collective bargaining agreement explicitly says the league and union “commit to participating in the 2022 and 2026 Winter Olympic Games” subject to any further negotiations that may be necessary.
NFL player contracts are notoriously strict when it comes to high-risk activities outside of NFL-related events. A high-risk event like the Olympics could jeopardize a player’s winnings, especially their guaranteed money. Therefore, an exclusion can be made from the collective agreement, but adjustments may also need to be made to individual contracts.
The NFL Players Association wants to have a major voice in the health and safety aspects of international competition for any NFL player. Training schedules and equipment would be at the top of the list, while the NFLPA would also be key on field surfaces for the Olympics, as it does with all NFL-related activities.
Athletes are barely paid for the Olympics, and it is hard to imagine players would take issue with the relatively paltry sum they would be paid to represent their country. The real money issue is in insurance.
Players have comprehensive health and disability insurance through their teams and the league, but injuries sustained in non-NFL activities, such as the Olympics, may not be fully covered.
So who would pay for these players’ insurance policies? The three options appear to be the players themselves, USA Football, and the NFL and NFLPA. According to sources, having players take out their own personal insurance to cover gambling for their country against millions of dollars in professional earnings would be considered too onerous.
USA Football, the sport’s governing body that selects and trains the national team for competition, is unlikely to have the money for such policies, multiple sources say. And that would leave the group with the most resources: the NFL and the union.
Perhaps the most recent case of a star player suffering an injury in international competition is that of Paul George. In 2014, while competing for the FIBA World Cup, George suffered a gruesome compound fracture in his leg that caused him to miss nearly all of the next season just as he was coming off his second All-Star Game appearance with the Pacers.
USA Basketball is required to provide insurance to players of NBA teams as required by FIBA. If that doesn’t happen, the NBA team that owns the player’s rights is not obligated to allow the player to participate, according to a source. In hockey, the NHL players’ union creates insurance policies for players.
Whether NFL owners are willing to fund their stars playing (and risking injury) in international competition at the risk of their NFL clubs remains to be determined. A source said a prominent NFL owner has privately expressed his complete opposition to player involvement.
And then there’s the calendar. The 2028 Olympic Games are scheduled to take place between July 14 and 30 of that year. Under the current training camp schedule, that would primarily fall during the window in which players report, ramp up and begin padded practices.
There has been some discussion within the NFLPA about adjusting the offseason calendar to start training camp earlier and eliminate some volunteer work in the spring. It’s unclear if those changes will ever happen, but it’s worth noting that this year’s training camp schedule may not be the same three and a half years from now.
However, there is much more to it than the Olympic Games schedule. There will be tests, training periods and acclimatization. After all, flag football uses different strategies than classic tackle football.
Is it possible that a group of NFL All Pros can throw the ball in a football game and win without any preparation for that style of play? Sure. But sources don’t believe that’s what will happen.
Training could begin as early as 2027, although one source noted that liability issues are greater the longer the training lasts. If training and testing takes place in 2028, that would consume some or all of the offseason.
Would trials be conducted in a centralized location? That could keep players away from their teams during offseason work. Will teams be willing to part with their superstars for a full offseason program? That will be a tough question for a team chasing a Lombardi.
For the purposes of fielding a 12-person competitive team to represent the United States, the sooner the decision is made, the better. But NFL team owners may not feel pressured to decide in 2025 what to do in 2028. With significant hurdles looming, it’s possible, if not likely, that a decision won’t be reached at the annual team meetings. March.
But all available information should be there so the league can make a decision in upcoming meetings. And then team owners will be able to decide whether to allow players to go for gold.
