FILE PHOTO: The NFL emblem is pictured at an occasion within the Manhattan borough of New York Metropolis, New York, U.S., November 30, 2017. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri/File Picture
NEW YORK– The Tremendous Bowl will be the Nationwide Soccer League’s final prize however the NFL mentioned on Tuesday it needs to see their gamers on the Olympic stage going for gold after flag soccer was added to this system for the Los Angeles 2028 Video games.
Flag soccer was amongst 5 sports activities added to this system for the 2028 Video games, after the Worldwide Olympic Committee (IOC) gave their approval on Monday. Cricket, lacrosse, squash and baseball-softball have been additionally added.
The game’s nationwide governing our bodies would have the ultimate say over who makes the lower to compete for his or her nation.
However NFL Government Vice President Peter O’Reilly mentioned the league would work with the NFL Gamers Affiliation and all 32 golf equipment to clear a pathway for the celebs of the gridiron to have an opportunity to compete within the Video games.
“The Olympic Video games – it’s the head of world sport,” he instructed reporters on the NFL house owners assembly in New York.
“There’s a need to work via with these stakeholders to get to that end result for July, in a window that’s – at the least within the first week – previous to veteran reporting date” for 2028.
The sentiment is a departure from Main League Baseball, which opted to not launch gamers to compete within the 2020 Video games citing the disruption to their season. Baseball-softball have been left off the 2024 Olympic program.
With 113 foreign-born gamers on NFL rosters as of Week 5, the league has an opportunity to be well-represented when the competitors kicks off.
Some NFL gamers have already expressed curiosity in competing for the U.S. group.
That would spell heartbreak for present flag soccer gamers, who’ve competed for years in relative anonymity.
“What LA28 put forth to the IOC was not predicated on NFL gamers,” mentioned O’Reilly.
“I’d by no means low cost the gifted flag soccer gamers enjoying that self-discipline.”
‘ENTRY POINT’
Kansas Metropolis Chiefs tight finish Travis Kelce (87) makes a catch towards Denver Broncos’ Pat Surtain II (2) in the course of the first half of an NFL soccer sport, Thursday, Oct. 12, 2023, in Kansas Metropolis, Mo. (AP Picture/Ed Zurga)
The Olympic stage might be a boon to the NFL, which is working to increase its international footprint.
The league included 5 worldwide video games in its 2022 and 2023 schedules and assigned advertising and marketing rights for 26 worldwide areas to particular person groups two years in the past, in an effort to drive fan development and engagement overseas.
The NFL has flag soccer packages in 13 international locations and plans to develop that world wide, in an effort to get to as lots of the 74 international locations by which the Worldwide Federation of American Soccer (IFAF) has present federations.
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“Flag soccer is… this accessible entry level into our sport,” mentioned O’Reilly.