Roger Goodell says NFL will 'not have any involvement' in Team USA selection process for 2028 Olympics

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell confirmed USA Football would be the organization to determine the roster selection process for the Olympics. The NFL recently allowed its players permission to play in flag football in the 2028 LA Olympics.

However, it remains to be seen how the rosters will be selected and if NFL players will make their Olympic debuts three years from now. At any rate, Goodell and the league won’t have any involvement in the process.

The chips will fall where they may and it’s on USA Football to use traditional flag football players or NFL players when it’s time to create its roster. Goodell made that clear going into Memorial Day Weekend.

“That’s actually a function of USA Football that will be making that decision,” Goodell said. “The NFL will not have any involvement in that selection process.”

Ironically, the NFL has direct involvement with USA Football, as Pro Football Talk pointed out, so they won’t be totally invisible. We’ll have to see how the process plays out.

ESPN’s Peter Schrager recently shared what the NFL would require for players to compete in flag football in 2028. Again, if it’s on USA Football, this could all be a moot point. Or, Goodell is simply choosing to stay out of it for now.

“I was very flippant on this as well, and I heard from folks at both the players union and the league office saying, don’t laugh at the idea of this getting passed,” Schrager said on Get Up. “It might happen as soon as today that NFL players will have the ability to play in the Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028 in flag football. 

“There are going to be guardrails in place, things such as only one player per country, per NFL team, that the training and the medical staff has to be up to snuff, that the playing surface has to be approved by the NFL, and there will be salary cap rewards if a player, God forbid, got hurt, competing in the Olympics before training camp. But this looks like this might pass today. We might have NFL players in the Olympics as soon as 2028.”

One would think, logically, that NFL players would give Team USA a significant advantage in flag football. Will USA Football want to maintain some sort of amateurism in the Olympics against the rest of the world? That remains to be seen as we countdown to the 2028 Summer Olympics.