The Bengals training camp is later this month, but quarterback Joe Burrow also is planning for an event four years from now — the Olympics.
And while athletes are preparing for the the start of this month’s start of the Paris Olympics, Burrow is contemplating the 2028 Games in Los Angeles. He wants to play flag football for a gold medal. And the Bengals quarterback basically has the U.S. team already selected.
“I really want to play for the Olympic flag football team,” Burrow said during an interview on Pardon My Take. “Like Me, Ja’marr (Chase), Justin (Jefferson). Me and my friends out there playing football. … I think it’d be really cool.”
You also could say the the flag football squad wearing red, white and blue should be deemed Team LSU. Since all three of the players starred with the Tigers and helped win LSU a national college football title.
There are five players per each Olympics team, so Burrow should invite two more of his faster friends
Olympic rules allow for five players per team, so Burrow can pad the squad with some more friends. And, he’s not the only star quarterback who’d like to represent his country on home soil. Patrick Mahomes would love to be on a team.
“I definitely want to, but I’ve seen some of those guys play the flag football and they’re a little faster than I am,” Mahomes said at a press conference in Germany last football season. “I know there’s not, like, linemen blocking for you. I’ll be 31, 32 years old, so if I can still move around then, I’m going to try to get out there and throw the football around maybe in LA. Just don’t tell Coach Reid or Veach or anybody.”
Of course, if Mahomes is going to the Olympics, then that means Travis Kelce wants to be there, too.
“I think we’re all just gonna be assistant coaches,” Kelce told Jason Kelce on a recent New Heights podcast. “But I need a gold medal, so I need to be on that roster somehow or someway.”
According to USA Football, 7.1 million people around the country played flag football. A handful of states also sanction girl’s flag football as a varsity sport. More than 20 million people play flag football across the world.
But there’s plenty of time to talk about the Olympics in 2028. It’s now all about getting ready for the 2024 season. The Bengals, with Burrow and Chase, start training camp July 24. Jefferson heads off to Vikings camp July 27. They can tuck away those dreams of the Olympics for another four years.
And while they’re in training camp, there will be an early glimpse of what flag football could look like in the Olympics. The largest-ever IFAF World Flag Football Championships are next month in Finland.
