Photo: Getty Images
NFL owners voted to allow players to participate in flag football at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics during league meetings in Minnesota on Tuesday (May 20), USA TODAY reports.
The ratification required favoring from at least 24 of the league's 32 owners.
“The membership believes that participation by NFL Players in flag football during the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California will support such growth and advance several League interests, including increasing fan and public interest in flag football, expanding the global reach of the NFL, and providing greater opportunities for fan engagement and for our League partners,” a resolution released last week and obtained by USA TODAY states.
The resolution laid out rules and a basic structure for how the NFL would intend to make the process work, which would include negotiations with the NFL Players Association and Olympics-related entities include the following:
- Permission for any contracted player to participate in tryouts
- A limit of one player per NFL team on each participating national
- Allowing, in addition, a team's designated international player to represent their home country
- Leaguewide insurance polices to give injury protection for any player injured during Olympic flag football related activities
- Salary cap credit for players injured during Olympic flag football related activities
- Expectation that Olympic teams will have medical staffs and field surfaces meeting the NFL's minimum standards
- A schedule that "does not unreasonably conflict with an NFL player's league and club commitments."
NFL met in Eagan, Minnesota, on Tuesday to discuss a potential resolution for flag football at the Olympics, as well as other previously scheduled league business, for the first of a two-day session.