Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow wants to be an Olympian.
Flag football will be an Olympic sport for the first time in Los Angeles in 2028, and Burrow says that as soon as the Olympics made that decision, he was intrigued by the idea of being an Olympian.
“I’ve always wanted to play in the Olympics,” Burrow said, via the Cincinnati Enquirer. “I’ve never necessarily played an Olympic sport before, so when this got announced, I was pretty excited about it.”
Burrow said he grew up loving the Olympics, and for the first time in his life, participating in it seems like a realistic possibility.
“The opportunity to win a gold medal [is] something that I’ve thought about – a moment like that – for a long time, since I was a kid. I think it would be something very special,” Burrow said.
It’s unclear, however, whether NFL players will make the U.S. Olympic team in 2028. At Saturday’s Fanatics Flag Football Classic, Burrow and his fellow NFL players were unable to compete on the same level as the flag football players who have been playing and practicing the flag game for years. NFL players are superior athletes, but flag football is a different sport that requires different skills, and if the U.S. wants to win the gold medal — and not just use the Olympics to promote the NFL to a global audience — it may be experienced flag players, not NFL players, representing Team USA.
