Team USA Stars Reveal What It Would Take for NFL Players to Master Flag Football

A minute before halftime of the inaugural Fanatics Flag Football Classic last weekend, Team USA’s Velton Brown Jr. caught a pass just past midfield. He surveyed the open field around him and scanned the defense. Then he accelerated. As Team Wildcats' Luke Kuechly tried to pull one of his flags from behind, Brown contorted his body mid-sprint to make the Hall of Fame linebacker miss. When veteran NFL receiver DeAndre Hopkins lunged toward him by the sideline, Brown niftily jumped backward to avoid his arm. Then, with both Kuechly and Hopkins in front of him, Brown started a series of jukes. He slipped between them. Still, they couldn’t pull his flag. Brown’s dazzling array of moves finally ended at the 7-yard line, where his right knee touched the ground. But the viral highlight on Saturday — on top of Team USA’s dominance of current and former NFL stars throughout the day — encapsulated the message that the flag players hoped to send. Team USA went 3-0 to win Saturday’s round-robin tournament in Los Angeles, scoring on every possession except a kneel-down at the end of one victory. "I think truly that guys understand that flag football is its own sport," Darrell "Housh" Doucette, a Team USA flag national team member since 2021 and MVP of Saturday’s tournament, told me. "We are in our own lane." The flag players were noticeably smaller and quicker than their NFL counterparts. Their shiftiness often made their opponents look silly. But the biggest takeaway was the flag players’ mastery of their sport, prompting discussion about what it would take for NFL players to challenge for spots on the U.S. flag team that will compete in the 2028 Olympics, when flag football will make its Olympic debut. [4 Takeaways From Fanatics Flag Football Classic] As a discipline of football, the flag game’s similarities to tackle football are clear. The ball looks the same. The ability to throw, catch and cover translates. Speed, athleticism and versatility matter, too. But flag football is a faster game than tackle football. It’s played on a much smaller field (50 yards long between the end zones, 25 yards wide). Receivers have to run routes differently in a smaller space. For quarterbacks, the clock in their head is sped up because the rush gets to them a lot faster than what they’re accustomed to. The non-contact component of flag is "obviously a glaring one" for NFL players, according to former NFL assistant coach Callie Brownson, USA Football’s senior director of high performance and national team operations. "I think when we say non-contact, everybody just automatically goes to tackling, which obviously is very true. You can’t tackle in a 5-on-5 game. But what also falls under that category of non-contact that people don’t give enough credit to is, for example, you can’t hold somebody up while you’re trying to pull their flag," Brownson told me. "You can’t initiate any sort of contact with a player at the top of the route. You can’t run through a player in order to make a play on the ball. You can’t shield or block or post anybody up. Non-contact is actually a little more complex than just the tackling component. "Then the other piece is flag-pulling," she added. "It’s a super, super unique skill that I don’t think enough people appreciate until they go through that process. You’re not just pulling a stationary flag. As you saw on Saturday, these are unique, dynamic movements that these ball carriers are making. The plane and the level of the flag is changing. The axis of the flag is changing on a dime. Flag-pulling is a super unique skill that’s particular to our sport. It [requires] a certain type of hand-eye coordination that has to be trained over time." Brown, the cousin of Detroit Lions star safety Kerby Joseph, played high school and semi-pro football before getting involved with flag football. He says there was an acclimation process to learning the nuances of flag. "A lot of people are used to the blocks," Brown told me. "A lot of people are used to the heavy hits and things like that, but flag consists of more finesse, more IQ to where it’s a smaller field. "You don’t necessarily get to read a hole like a running back. It’s a totally different game," he added. "Maybe a guy is trying to pull your flag and you may stiff-arm just because that's the natural instinct of what you’re used to. That was kind of the adjustment for me, learning how to keep my hands up and not to necessarily want to jam somebody or slap the ball out of their hands, things like that." Team USA member Isaiah Calhoun, who had a pick-six off Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow, places a higher emphasis on smarts than athleticism in flag football. "If you just athletic and not smart, you’re not going to know what to do. But if you’re smart and add your athleticism to the game, then you’re going to be one of the best players in the world or one of the most known players in the world," Calhoun told me. "You have to learn from various people that have been playing for a long time before you get on the field. If you just get on the field and not know what to do, you’re going to be embarrassed out there." While it’s clear that there will be a learning curve for them to master flag football, NFL players remain on track to participate in the sport at the 2028 Olympics. Last May, NFL owners approved a resolution permitting it, though specifics of their participation must still be finalized with the NFL Players Association and relevant Olympic authorities. Doucette, Brown and Calhoun don’t see a problem with NFL players challenging for roster spots on the flag team. They view their involvement as part of their sport’s growth. "When [NFL players] step on the flag football field and they’re competing with us, they’re not NFL guys in my eyes," Doucette told me. "We all feel that we are one, we are equal and we are all flag football players at that time. And if they study the game and they’re willing to take the time out of their busy schedule and to come out and learn it, hey, man, hats off to them. Come out and be great, because now you’re a part of our community and we accept you with open arms, the same way they accepted us as peers over the past weekend. "We are the USA national team, but the USA national team also gives open invites to guys to come out and make the team better," Doucette added. "And if you say, OK, 10 [NFL] guys would be better suited for the game, and they go out there and win gold, you can’t blame them for putting out the 10 best guys. And I think that’s what it’s all about." Brownson said that "time on task" is the biggest thing that NFL players need with flag football. Athletes in basketball, soccer and track & field have also found success in the sport due to transferable skills, she said. "What you see sometimes in the tackle [football] world, a player has a predominant position in college and they get drafted and have to do something else at the NFL level. It’s no different than that in the sense that it takes reps and it takes time [to master flag football]," Brownson told me. "It’s specific to each player on how quickly they pick things up or how much practice they need. "There’s no really true, ‘Hey, here’s how much time it takes for you to be a great flag-puller.’ It’s unique to the player. But I’d say, holistically speaking, it’s time on task just like anything else to be able to build instincts that are applicable to flag." Team USA came out of the Fanatics event feeling like the NFL and celebrity players acknowledged the time they have put into their sport. "It was just like, ‘We understand why y’all do this,’" Doucette said of the conversations that transpired. "‘People look at y’all size, but they don’t understand how twitchy you guys are, how fast and how quick y’all can break down, whether it’s stopping on the dime or dropping low to dip through defenders.’ "Those guys really had the utmost respect for us," he added. "A big salute to those guys for accepting us."