There is a lot of chatter out there about the 2028 flag football Olympics. Some of it valid. Most of it, not. The primary focus has been on who will make up the men's and women's teams. We have a lot of thoughts about that but we will save the "who" for later. After all, it is 2025. Today we want to focus on the "how" these games will be played. We can summarize it up with one word, "Fast".
Before you give the "Duh" reaction, let me explain that I am not talking about the speed of the players. I am talking about the pace of the game and particularly, the offense. After coaching 30 years of NFL and college football, I am of the opinion that most of the differences with flag football favor the defense. The one notable exception is flag pulling. Flag pulling is hard. It may be harder to pull Patrick Mahomes' flag than it is to tackle him. We will save that for later too.
The players in the Olympics will be every bit as athletic as NFL players or the best athletes from any sport. In fact, as you know, some of them may actually be NFL players. Here's the catch. They will be playing on a much smaller field. Ask any tackle football defensive coordinator and they will tell you that reducing the field is a key to playing good defense. The IFAF field has already done that for the defense. Advantage Defense.
Both offense and defense will have five players in the flag football Olympics. So where is the defensive advantage? It's simple. Fewer players means fewer options. Fewer opportunities to be creative. Think about it this way. In tackle football when played with 11 players, the quarterback always has five options to help with the play. In 5v5 flag football there are only four. Advantage Defense.
Any flag football coach or player with any experience witnessed how unlike flag football the Pro Bowl Games were. They turned it into a 7on7 game and that is not flag football. They had restrictive rules about how many times the defense could rush the quarterback. in fact, I believe they called it a "blitz" or "pressure". Well, unless the rules change for the Olympic games, the best athlete on the flag football defense is going to be chasing the quarterback on every snap. Don't think T.J. Watt. Think Tyreek Hill chasing the quarterback on every snap. Advantage Defense.
So are we to think that the 2028 Olympics are going to be a boring low scoring affairs that make us want to turn it off and watch the track and field events instead? As Lee Corso would say, "Not so fast my friend." Come back for part 2 of this article and we will explain how good flag football coaches will adapt on offense to level the playing field, no matter how small it is.