This weekend, Tom Brady will participate in a flag football tournament. It could be a precursor to participating in a bigger event two years from now.
Via NFL.com, Brady addressed on Tuesday’s episode of Good Morning America whether he’d play Olympic flag football in 2028.
“I would never say never,” Brady said.
He also said it would be “unlikely.” After all, Brady will be 50 when the next Olympics happen.
“I’ll let the young Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen get out there and try to win a gold medal for the U.S.,” Brady said.
It’s unclear whether Mahomes and Allen even want to do it. Or whether they’d be picked for the team.
That remains the great unknown as to the eventual 2028 U.S. men’s Olympic team. Who will USA Football pick for the roster? How will they do it?
Some apples-to-apples insight will be developed on Saturday, when two teams of current and former NFL players (along with random celebrities) will participate in a tournament that includes the current U.S. men’s national flag-football team.
Ultimately, USA Football will have to determine whether the 2028 team will be determined by invitation or tryout. There’s plenty of merit to the notion of a team of current and former NFL players facing the U.S. men’s team in a competition to determine which group is better suited to represent the country.
Then there’s the marketing angle. Chances are that many different combinations of elite American tackle and flag football players would easily win gold. Having big names will draw bigger ratings and drive greater interest.
Saturday’s tournament merits more attention than it would have had under its prior format of three teams of NFL players and YouTubers, or whoever. The current best of the best flag football players will get a chance to show what they can do against non-flag players who may be in for a surprise when they face a motivated team of experienced flag-football players who are well versed in the nuances of that version of the sport.